Vivid thoughts about the future

From Time on the Brain: How You Are Always Living In the Past, and Other Quirks of Perception by George Musser.

The world as we perceive it is constructed and that construction depends both on reliable recollection and imagination.

The bottom line is that memory is essential to constructing scenarios for ourselves in the future. Anecdotal evidence backs this up. Our ability to project forward and to recollect the past both develop around age 5, and people who are good at remembering also report having vivid thoughts about the future.