[Erik Olson]

Roger, yes it is true that "I'm glad I planned ahead" might sound awkward without ahead. But planned ahead is still redundant. You see there are some redundancies we use that have become common parts of our speaking and some of which would be awkward to omit. But technically they are still redundant. To be sure, Plan is a. trans. To arrange in advance (an action or proposed proceeding); to devise, contrive, or formulate (a project or manner of proceeding). Thus ahead is not strictly necessary since the verb itself is to make arrangements in advance for the future. Yet as I said this is a case of a naturalized redundancy, not all redundancies are to be avoided. That said, I will plan for graduation is better to my mind than I will plan ahead for graduation. In some cases, the ahead can be omitted to get rid of unnecessary words.