Should I get out of debt before investing?

[Zachary Giles]

My wife and I are split 50/50 on wether or not to pay off all our existing debt such as student loans and auto payments before we take on more debt to invest into real estate, or we begin saving to buy our first rental property. My personal opinion is that debt in real estate isn’t true debt, but I am just curious as to what others have done and how others feel about this topic?

[Joe Villeneuve]

...or, you can invest and let the returns from the investments (cash flow/profit) pay off the debts...and then, you still have the investment income to do whatever you want with it.  If you use your cash to pay off debt first, you have to generate those funds again to invest.  If you invest first, you can let the investment returns fund the payoffs, and still have those returns coming after the debt is gone.