Good personal finance requires education, perseverance and at least a little luck-but really, it all comes down to planning.

Even the tiniest decisions stem, at root, from personal values. Your values teach you to dream-and, for some people, it stops right there. Good decisions-financial, personal, spiritual-come from defining goals that reach those dreams, and then making smaller goals that can be reached through set plans. Then comes the hard part, in which you stick to the plan. We make education and then career plans, marriage plans and family plans and life plans. And, of course, we have to make all kinds of financial plans.

Spending plans

Even for those who don’t budget, some kind of planning is necessary. I think a lot of people use stricter budgets when they’re getting on their feet, and then when they’re confident that they can live within their means they loosen up.

I’ve found that making a flexible plan and then tracking my spending in serious detail works best for me. Who I am deep in my soul is someone who will forgo groceries for happy hours-which I figure is fine as long as I don’t spend over a certain amount. So I just let myself know how much I have to spend, and then spend it how I see fit. Even a simple spending and saving plan is better than wantonly spewing your money around town.

Debt plans

A lot of personal finance writers and bloggers don’t classify debt as “good” and “bad”-they think of it as “marginally less bad” and “slavery.” I say debt is only a problem if you don’t plan it adequately. (You know, like drinking too much. Or getting pregnant.)

Certainly you don’t want to casually rack up $50 or $100 more than you earn on a credit card each month until you’re thousands of dollars in debt-but loans for houses, cars, education, or businesses are often necessary, and you can make credit cards work for you if you know how much you’re putting on them and why.

That’s the trick: how much and why? The requests for Prosper loans that come with detailed stories, plans and budgets are just fascinating-and they show that it’s more than possible to use debt responsibly if you make a solid plan.

Big plans

Dreams for your life are about a lot more than money-but nothing can make them come true like a solid plan. One of my favorite feelings is paying for a vacation I’ve carefully saved for-it’s a reminder of what’s within reach with just a little time and effort. All you have to do is figure out how you’re going to get there.

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Melissa Eastlake is a contributing writer at Queercents, a syndicate of personal finance writers serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Since its launch, Queercents has offered up daily tips and financial commentary to over 250,000 visitors.