What to do with cash and debt before investing?

[Gregg Baird]

Hi, I'm new to REI and Bigger Pockets and learning financial literacy, but I'm not sure how to proceed as I get started. I have my first rental house under contract that I'm paying for with money that we pulled out of our personal residence in a refinance. I'm setting up a bank account for that money that is going to be for my real estate assets. We have debt from a car payment and we had to finance a crawl space job. I took the penalty and pulled the balance of my 401k out and am thinking of doing the same with a self directed IRA. My question is should I put the amount of the 401k and IRA toward paying off our debt or should I hold onto it to make another real estate acquisition? I quit my job in March to care for my children as schools closed, and am close to being employed again, so needless to say, those debt payments are quite the burden. I really enjoy the site and forum and thanks in advance for any help you can provide.