CSM,
What sort of Retirement investing are you doing? ROTH IRA, particularly self directed are wonders.. they don't shelter your tax liability on contributions, but they do let you use the monies in there to make money tax free, and trust me a self directed IRA in the right hands can turn just a few dollars into 50k or 100k in a year very handily.
Personally I have found Real Estate to be a great shelter, I'd never buy real estate strictly for its tax advantages, but you can definately write off a lot of income thanks to depreciation schedules.... Its amazing, you buy a house, you get to depreciate a part of the value of the house every year off your income, and the house goes up in value! Own a few properties and your depreciation amounts can get quite large.
Of course the government makes it up when you sell the property as you will owe capital gains on the difference between your depreciated value the year you sell and the sale price.. but that's years down the road... and then if you are going to role it into another property, you do a 1031 exchange and the tax liability is defered until you sell that property... unless of course you 1031 that one too.... you can literally 1031 exchange your entire life and past your death!
There are of course many many many other ways to shelter income... Like I said, find a good CPA, and/or go get some books and read up on the topic. I know its counter intuitive for some folks, but Uncle Sam actually does have lots of stuff on the books to help you if you are creating wealth.. just have to know about them and use them.
Right now I am maxing my 401K contributions, no IRA's yet. Wouldn't your plan mean that I would have to take those actions and defer paying off my debt? My plan is to be debt free (actual, not just on paper) ASAP to become freer to make some of the decisions being discussed on this thread.
Maybe I am just confused, but I don't understand how you can shelter income, then use that income to become debt free. If I put it into an IRA, then I can't touch it, until retirement. How does that help releive debt? And yes, I do understand a balance sheet.....