NEWS YOU CAN USE: Save for Retirement Before You Even Think About the Kids’ College Fund.

After all, when you get on a plane, what does the chirpy instructional video tell you? Attend to your own oxygen mask before you turn to your kid. This is not because airlines care less about kids than they do about the passengers with the credit cards. It’s because someone who has passed out from anoxia is not much use to their kid or anyone else. Taking care of yourself is part of being a good parent. If you don’t do it, your kids will have to, and they may not be up to the job.

This is simply common sense. But the evidence suggests that this bit of common sense is eluding a lot of parents.

The T. Rowe Price survey is, of course, just one data point — but it mirrors conversations I have had over and over in my years of writing about personal finance. “We’ll save for retirement as soon as the kids are out of college,” says someone whose last kid will graduate when they are 57. Or “I’m just not going to be able to retire,” they say with a shrug. “I’ll have to work until I die, but at least the kids will be started off right.”

This is magical thinking. Fifty-seven is a good age to start planning what you will do in your retirement, but it is a terrible age to start saving for it. You have almost no time for the money to grow, which means that to enjoy a decent standard of living over a 20-year retirement, you would effectively need to be saving more than your salary each and every year. This is not a viable plan.

True.