Squirrels have a pretty good retirement plan, if you think about it. While other animals — like, for instance, the crows — are living the carefree, party-hearty lifestyle all summer and fall, the smart little squirrels are gathering acorns and storing them for the winter months.That’s why they can curl up in their trees and play canasta all winter, while the crows have to search for odd bits of seeds in the snow all winter long, and complain about their arthritis.

A lot of people are the opposite of squirrels. They go along from day to day not thinking much about the future, because, well, there’s just too much going on in the present to keep them busy.

But that’s a mistake, and here’s why.

Retirement. Yes, there’s a time in either the near or far future when we will reach the end of our working life, and we’ll want to have enough acorns put away to weather the winter of our lives. Sorry if this is getting too poetic, but you get the point.

It’s that it’s never too early to start planning for a happy, healthy retirement, and actually sooner is much better than later. The future is not easy to predict, but one thing that’s pretty certain is that the cost of living is bound to go up, and certain other costs — like healthcare, for example — will go up faster than the average.