Millions of Americans spend their working days dreaming about retirement. Yet millions of Americans also may not take into consideration the crucial financial steps they should take becoming a retiree.

While many understand it’s important to pay down loans, they’re often focusing on the wrong ones — prioritizing their mortgages, which have lower interest rates, rather than expensive high-interest accounts.

So here are the three loans Americans must pay off before even considering retirement.

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School loans

College and university loans are some of the longest lasting debts Americans deal with. What’s more, those loans may increase as you near retirement if you’ve taken out loans to help children through college too.

While student loans are inexpensive right now, the payment and interest freeze introduced due to the pandemic only lasts until December. The interest rate on those loans could surge to 7.54% in the new year.

And those loans last a long time. A 2019 study from New York Life found it took participants an average 18.5 years to repay student loans.

Unlike a mortgage, many student loans aren’t tax deductible, and data from StudentAid.gov showed that 2.3 million borrowers were aged 62 and older. So all those payments take away from your retirement income.

Americans should therefore find a strategy to pay off their student loans that’s similar to how they make mortgage payments. This would involve scheduled payments taken out on a regular basis, paying off that debt faster and bringing you closer to your retirement goals.

Personal loans and credit cards

Personal loans and credit cards generally have the highest interest rates. This is especially true with credit cards, which currently have an average interest rate of 21.59% in the United States, according to LendingTree.