The good news is that the downward momentum of the Great Recession seems to be subsiding. The financial panic that seized the global capital markets has eased. CEOs are no longer acting as if depression looms. That said, the consensus forecast is for the economy to emerge slowly out of the downturn. The recovery won't feel much like one, with the unemployment rate climbing toward double digits. This sure looks like one of those times when conventional wisdom is right.

An occasional theme of this column is what personal finance lessons we should take away from the traumatic experience of the past several years. One thought is not to get too caught up in personal finance products and tactics.

Yes, it's important to figure out whether you put too much of your retirement money into equities. It's also vital to come up with ways to pay down accumulated credit card debts.

Yet it pays to step back every once in a while and ask bigger questions, such as where do you want to be one year, five years or 10 years from now? What about that dream you've always had in the back of your mind? Should you let it go, or go for it?

As Woody Allen once quipped, "Life isn't a dress rehearsal -- it's reality."

Just ask the hot dog man. I met him in downtown Boulder, Colo., during a shoot for the personal finance public television show, "Right on the Money." He was rakish, charismatic white-haired man selling hot dogs behind his cart. He had fun and did a great business. We got to talking and I learned he grew up in Chicago in an Armenian family that lived near Wrigley Field. There were two Armenian hot dog sellers on the corners near Wrigley. "I'd go there, and I'd get hot dogs all the time," he recalled. "My mother used to say: When other kids wanted to be firemen or cowboys or policemen, I wanted to have a hot dog stand."

Well, he ended up owning a piece of a beer distributorship in Colorado and raised a family. He retired at 57. It's then that he took his savings and opened up a hot dog stand. "Everybody always has a hot dog stand in the back of their mind," he told me.

Sometimes, we don't figure out our hot dog-stand equivalent for years. Or, as in the hot dog man's case, it takes time to make the transition to a new stage of life practical. The economy doesn't always cooperate, either. That's why you need a budget and, more importantly, a financial plan. Even a loose money plan helps keep you focused on the inevitable trade-offs we all have to make with our money. A financial plan is an ongoing money conversation that allows you to take your dreams seriously.

Chris Farrell is economics editor for American Public Media's "Marketplace Money." Send questions to cfarrell@mpr.org.