So. Your career is finally budding and a regular paycheck is rolling in, a celebratory event, right? Maybe not. Tony Taddeo, director of finanical planning at Financial Planning Associates Inc. in Tarrytown, says start saving your acorns for the long winter of retirement.

It may be hard to think of securing your Golden Years while contemplating how to snag elusive and pricey concert tix, but your 70-something self will thank you later.

Learn your stuff.

Remember when you decided to only shell out the minimum payment on your Visa card last month? What are you paying in interest for deferring that $500 bill? What does it mean when your student loan company asks you if you want to consolidate those pesky debts? Get educated. Read a pretty, glossy finance mag. Ask your grandpa. Retrieve your company’s 401K brochure from the trash. The more you know about how to handle money, the better chance you’ll have to holding onto it, Taddeo says.

Start feeding the piggybank now. Yes, now.

“Definitely contribute to an employer-sponsored retirement plan,” he says. “What a lot of people don’t realize is what Albert Einstein called the 8th wonder of the world, which is the power of compounding.”

Taddeo uses the example of the 19-year-old who puts away $2,000 a year at 10 percent growth until the age of 26. If he or she stops contributing and lets that savings simmer, they will have accumulated more than $1 million by age 65. Now take young adults who don’t conserve any cash until the age of 27. If they stashed away 2K a year until age 65, they would only be sitting on 883,000. You get the picture. Don’t wait.

Pass up the new iPhone.

It may be hard to curb your overwhelming urge to splurge on stuff you really, really want, but living within your means is the most important step in dodging financial trouble, Taddeo says. “I would say try to establish a buffer and separate wants and needs and maintain a disciplined approach and discretionary approach,” he says. Sounds simple, right?