• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Ask Liz Weston

Get smart with your money

  • About
  • Liz’s Books
  • Speaking
  • Disclosure
  • Contact

With money goals, multitasking pays off

November 20, 2018 By Liz Weston

Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O’Neill at least $1 million.

That’s how much O’Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.

“I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could’ve had $2 million,” O’Neill says.

Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: “As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I’ll start saving for a home,” or, “As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I’ll start saving for retirement.”

These folks don’t realize how costly the words “as soon as” can be. In my latest for the Associated Press, paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement.

Related Posts

  • Are you picking the wrong money goals?

    Setting smart, achievable goals is important if you want to take charge of your financial…

  • Thursday's need-to-know money news

    Today's top story: How to find a happy balance among competing savings goals. Also in…

  • Free money advice

    You have questions about money--everybody does. Now you have the opportunity to get answers from…

  • Money rules rock

    The more you learn about personal finance, the more you realize that "one size fits…

Filed Under: Liz's Blog Tagged With: debt, Retirement, Savings

Primary Sidebar

Search

Copyright © 2025 · Ask Liz Weston 2.0 On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in