[tptacek]

Be aware that there's a psychological cost to untracked vacation days. An award of vacation days with your compensation is formal compensation; your employers are obligated to make reasonable accommodations to let you spend those vacation days, and, in most cases, to reimburse you for them when you leave the company. That's not a bad chit to be holding, especially if you're not the type of person who was likely to take huge amounts of vacation anyways.