Do like the idea of eating well? How about having heat so that you're not shivering with cold? Or maybe you want to be able to buy the good type of denture cleaner rather than the crappy brand?

Even if it seems a long way in to the future, here are some reasons to care:

(1) It's going to affect your parents soon.

Long before you have to worry about retirement, chances are your parents will retire.

If they've been doing everything right or have been eager Shmoopers for years, they know how to plan. If they don't have that good fortune, their choices may mean that you need to work harder or prepare that in-law suite so that they can move in with you. If you think the thought of moving back in with your parents is bad, think about how you would feel to have your parents move in with you.

(2) You might not get to decide when to retire.

Not all of us decide when we're going to retire. If a major illness hits, you may need to stop working a lot sooner than 55, 65, or whenever you planned to hit the golf circuit. Having a healthy retirement account and investments ensures you don't retire with 65 bucks and a ton of debt you can't pay.

(3) The sooner you build up that nest egg, the sooner you can stick it to The Man.

Unless you want to be a cubicle jockey forever and keep listening to your boss drone on about his inner ear infection, you might want to retire early. The only way you can do that is by building up enough money so that you can retire without having to worry about sharing cans of dog food with Fido.

(4) The sooner you start, the easier it is to save.

If you wait until you're in your 40s to start saving for retirement—because you want to drive a Porsche now— it's going to be harder for you to set aside the money. You won't earn as much on your investments if you start later, and you'll have to sock away more of your monthly income in order to start making some serious dough. Even if you only start putting away $20 or $50 a month now, you'll have the time to watch that money grow.

You don't want to get to the end of your working days to find that you've worked your whole life only to have nothing to show for it. Getting started on retirement planning now means that you only have to put away a tiny amount in order to retire comfortably. Better yet, you'll be building up a retirement fund and a plan that can help you if you do run into problems along the way.

Even when you're wearing adult diapers and don't have your own teeth, you can smile wide knowing that you can afford to eat and can pay that looker half your age to help you with your groceries.