A good investment plan will help you stay the course, thus

increasing your chance of success. The professionals

use greedand fear to manipulate the market. Riding the
bull and staying in the gamecan be difficult. It’s
often referred to as “climbing a wall of worry.”
If you have a clearly defined written plan, you
can refer to it when you have doubts, and you will
be far more likely to investigate those doubts by doing
proper research and due diligence instead of making
a rash decision. A plan should have a goal, a
strategy (the big picture of how you’re going to get
from A to B), and a tactic (the specific methods
to be employed to implement the strategy). As an
example, here’s my plan:
GOAL
To accumulateX number of high-cash-flow apartment
buildings.
STRATEGY
Invest with the cycles and identify the top-performing
investments in each cycle. My research has shown
a high probability that precious metals will be the
top performers of the current market cycle.
TACTIC
In the first phase of my strategy I will employ
the tactic of investing in the precious metals
sector. My core position will be in physical
metals, heavily weighted toward silver. I will
achieve leverage through a position in a large
basket of mining and exploration stocks. I will
leverage myself further by starting a business that
I believe will prosper in the economic
environment I foresee. I will also prepare for the
second phase of my strategy by continuing my
education on real estate investing. I will continue my
 quest, as a cycle investor, to educate myself and
to be vigilant, so as to identify when this cycle
tops out and prepare for the next cycle change.
Develop Your Plan To develop an investment plan that is
right for you, you first need to ask
yourself, Who am I? Take a look at your own personality
and determine what kind of an investor you are. Here
are some good questions to ask yourself:
• What is my risk tolerance? • Am I a trader
or an investor? • How actively involved do I want
to be with my investments? • What is more important
to me: the potential for huge gains, or a good
night’s sleep? • Am I young or old? •Am I
investing to build wealth now, or for retirement?If
I am already retired, am I looking for safety
and potential growth, or do I need income?
As of the writing of this book, I’m convinced that
precious metals should offer huge gains and a good
night’s sleep. In fact, for me, it’s the only
investment that gives a good night’s sleep. Once you have
answered these questions, you can then define your goal
and develop a strategy to get you there. Here’s
a worksheet to help you. Circleone choice for each
category. If there’s a category I left out that’s
important to you, add it. This should help you figure
out what strategy is best to get you to your goal. For
example, regarding the reason for investing, if you
circled “1, Need Income,” then stop reading this book
and go find some cashflowing real estate. Gold and
silver do not cashflow, and very few mining stocks
pay dividends. Of these categories, I think the most
important are the “risk tolerance” and “involvement”
categories. If you know your risk tolerance and the level
of involvement you’re willing to take on, then
deciding how you will invest in precious metals
becomes much easier.