(Photo Courtesy of <a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/timpatterson/476098132/>Tim Patterson via Flickr</a>.)

If you’re like lots of workers, you lost some vacation time at the end of the year.

A Harris Interactive survey at the end of last year found many people forfeited some of their accumulated vacation time simply because they didn’t use it before the year ended. And curiously, a good number of those people said they wanted some time off, but were afraid to ask for it.

But, really, the last month of the year is too late to be worried about losing your days off. Brandon Smith tells us why we need to plan early for vacation (and why you don’t need to worry about asking to use your vacation) in this week’s Working on GPB Radio.