It's definitely necessary to plan a little in order to make money, but you don't need to have excessive knowledge, or spend any substantial amount of time doing it. If you're going after bounties, just check the map, look for groups of bounties and then click the 'fuel range' button on the map to make sure you can make it there and back. I always fill my fuel all the way up before an expedition. For supplies, I generally fill my cargo halfway roughly. I'm not min-maxing anything and I make plenty of money. The only way I've run into trouble with supplies/money is if I expand my fleet too quickly and don't have the supplies and cash to support it in the short term.
Avoiding going through coronas and hyperspace storms is also pretty important, there should probably be a tutorial for that. You can loose all your supplies in 10 seconds that way.
Also, In the current game, surveying and salvaging skills almost make it too easy to make money. I expect all of this to change next patch though, outposts and the new economy will definitely shake up the money making process significantly.