Money to burn looking for a return

[Jesse Birmingham]

Greetings. I'm a mariner and spend at least half the year on a ship. I currently do not own any property (rental or my own). The only bills I have are student loans. I currently net about $4000 a month after I pay my student loans. I'm looking to start investing in short term or vacation properties in luxury areas. is it feasible for me to do this? I would like to buy in places like Thailand or other SE Asia areas. Would I be a fool to do this while I still have about $140,000 in loans to pay off or could I start to make money at the same time? Any info or advice greatly appreciated. Basically I feel I have the means to make my income grow and want to try to do that. 

[Derrick E.]

I would sit down and take a hard look at your Private Student Loans. Leave the Federal ones be, at least for now.

Start funneling all money to whichever PRIVATE student loan has the highest interest rate and is also within striking distance.

My wife and I have basically been doing the snowball effect in reverse for our private student loans. Paying off one, then funneling that monthly payment to the next one and so on. This should allow you to pay off your student loans much quicker. $140k in student loans is a LOT, trust me I know as we have been there. Tackle those private student loans over the next year while you are learning more about REI. In a year you should have a lot of those knocked out and ready to invest.