Why would I save for retirement when I am paying off my student loan debt?  This doesn't make any sense!  Oh yes it does!!!!  While you might think it is better to pay off all of your debt before saving for retirement, think again.  Not only do you need to save regularly for retirement but you also need to keep your life moving forward in spite of your student loan debt.  Here's how it's done.  Every year, you have the opportunity to invest $5000 into a Roth IRA.  You might think that this is not a lot of money, but add it up over 40 years and you see the magic.  Bottom line, the most important aspect of this type of savings is that it is protected from bankruptcy. If you are self-employed and go bankruptcy 6 times during your life, ALL OF YOUR RETIREMENT SAVINGS ARE PROTECTED.    This means you can take lots of risks during your lifetime and even have good and bad years of income and file bankruptcy and then end up with a nice protected amount of retirement savings.  This is how smart entrepreneurs protect their family while trying to make a go of their business ideas, many of which fail, but if just one is successful even at the end of it all – it's all worth it and you have retirement savings as well.