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If you want to be wealthy, what’s the first step? Is it saving for an emergency fund, learning how to invest or embracing the frugal lifestyle? No - the first step is planning.

Many financial problems are caused by a lack of planning, and the reason why many people can’t bring wealth into their lives is a lack of planning, too. Someone who launches into investing without a plan may be excited at first by the idea of buying dividend producing stocks. After that idea loses its sparkle, that person might read a bit more and discover index funds. Future stops and starts continue to wreck any hope of getting ahead.

Knowing all your options is the most important part of planning. Before you start out building wealth, you need to come up with a plan (preferably written) for a number of areas:

• Am I prepared to eliminate debt from my life? How will I do it?
• Do I have adequate protection in place for myself and my family - wills, insurance, taxes and
  emergency funds?
• Do I have an investment strategy? Am I going to invest in the market, in real estate or in other
  alternative investments? What are my options?
• Is my current lifestyle reasonable, or can I save money without compromising my happiness?
• Does my work complement my goals or hold me back?

And most importantly:

• Why do I want to be wealthy? To give back? To have financial freedom? To support my business?

Often when people are young they don’t feel the need for planning. If you are young enough to feel that you have time to recover from your mistakes, you may think planning is a waste of time compared to “doing.” Yet at the same time making mistakes due to a lack of planning can come back to haunt you for years: failing to plan to manage your finances, your career or even your health or personal life can have long-lasting effects.

If there is any area of your financial life where you feel that things aren’t going well, take a step back and consider whether you have a plan. I recently started to wonder whether my investment strategy was well-thought out. I’ve been an investor in the stock market since high school, but I have never looked into or even seriously considered other avenues as they became available - real estate or alternative investments like Prosper or buying into businesses. Now that I’m interested in these areas, I am creating a plan; not because I’m tentative or have doubts about my ability to succeed, but because I know that with a plan I will succeed.

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Steve S. is the author of Brip Blap, a blog about personal finance, health, career management, productivity and self-improvement. He lives and works as a contract governance and audit consultant in the New York City area, and has lived in Germany and Russia. He is an active lender at Prosper.

Why not be the bank?

That’s the question that you have to ask yourself when you consider signing up for a Prosper account as a lender.   I have debated signing up for a while, and I’ve finally decided that there simply aren’t enough good reasons not to be the bank.

Times have been good for the banking industry, but it’s easy to forget with all of the recent bad news.

Looking at Citibank and Merrill Lynch (among others) many people have shaken their heads and asked “Why were they so risky? Didn’t they know what they were doing?”   The same people probably looked at the runaway profits a year ago and fumed, wondering who those big banks were cheating.  When you decide to be the bank, you can prove everyone wrong.   You can run your own investment bank or private equity firm – however you choose to think about it, you are in charge of the game.

With Prosper you have an opportunity not just to assess risk and maximize returns, but to control the whole process.

Risk management is a tricky business, but even the least risky investments like a certificate of deposit have some risk.   The riskier the investment, the higher the potential return.   Unlike holding shares in an investment bank, though, Prosper allows you to take charge and decide where and how you want your money invested.   You make the risk assessment.  You chart the course for growth.  Best of all, everyone wins – you become the bank and at the same time you help someone who needs the money.

Many people think of generating income the way they have been taught since childhood: through investing in the market, buying real estate, earning a wage, owning a small business – and never make that leap to thinking of different ways to earn money.

However, ask yourself the question – now that we have opportunities to eliminate the intermediary in banking, why wouldn’t you want to be the bank?   You can set your own goals, invest at your own rate and choose your own risks.   And once you’ve done it, maybe you can turn to those people who shook their heads at the big banks and instead of saying “well, I would have done things differently” you can say “I did do things differently.”   Maybe that’s all the reason you need to be the bank.

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Steve S. is the author of Brip Blap, a blog about personal finance, health, career management, productivity and self-improvement. He lives and works as a contract governance and audit consultant in the New York City area, and has lived in Germany and Russia. Recently, he became an active lender at Prosper.