Hello podcast friends. I'm Laura Adams your host and personal finance author,

speaker and consumer advocate who's been producing this show since 2008.

Thanks so much for downloading the show and spending a little time with me today.

My personal mission and the purpose of this podcast is to give you the knowledge, resources,

and motivation to manage your money the best way possible and create a richer life.

Lately, I've received several questions about how to prioritize

debt and figuring out what you want to pay off first. This is a pretty big topic.

In fact, I wrote an entire book about it called

Debt Free Blueprint how to get out of debt and build a financial life you love. It

was a number one Amazon new release and you can find it on Amazon or on other

platforms such as Apple Books and Google Play as a paperback and ebook or an

audio book. So you know that book is going to have every an e-book or an audiobook.

So you know that book is going to have everything that you need to know.

But we're going to narrow down the topic today by answering a question that came in from

Maya. She says, is it better to pay off student loans or a mortgage first?

I'm asking for my brother who took out $80,000 in student loans about 20 years ago and has only paid off about $10,000.

He recently bought a home in Southern California and took out a 30-year mortgage that might be as much as 400,000.

I don't know the interest rates he's paying on these debts,

but I think he should pay off his student loans first

because the total debt is smaller, older, and can't be

discharged in a bankruptcy. But what do you think? Thank you so much for your

question and your voicemail, Maya. I like the way you're thinking

...