"The general rule of thumb is that you should put between 10-15% of your income towards retirement. While some people advocate for focusing all your efforts on debt payoff, putting money toward retirement now can save you money later."
We follow Dave Ramsey's approach because the issue is that most people can't squeeze 10-15% of their income to invest because all their $ is going out in monthly payments. Focusing on paying off debt first frees up the funds to actually be able to invest. Stopping all saving (except for the initial $1000 emergency) in order to pay off debt first is only a problem if you plan on taking many years to pay off that debt. But the idea is that you reduce your expenses to a minimum and quickly tackle all your non-mortgage debt.
