If you believe you possess the desire, time, knowledge and temperament to manage your own portfolio then these four tips will help you lay a solid foundation for investing successfully.

Legendary hedge fund manager George Soros: “When the chips are down, philosophy is the most important part of my life.”

These “tips” are not shortcuts, get rich quick schemes or can’t miss investment opportunities. To execute them successfully, each step will require an investment of your time, building your investment knowledge while testing your true desire to invest.

1. Start with a Plan

Baseball philosopher Yogi Berra once said: “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Having a clear idea of where you are and where you want to go financially is an important first step. Your plan should address how you expect to achieve your goals as well as contingency plans, such as carrying adequate insurance, for unforeseeable events that can derail the best laid plans.

The Financial Planning Association and Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards websites contain useful resources including articles, videos and planning tools to help you create your own plan. If you find the process too daunting, look to a quality financial planning professional for help.

2. Focus on Philosophy

Before thinking about how to allocate your assets or researching individual investments, take time to develop and articulate your personal investment philosophy. These core beliefs about investing will guide your approach and help keep you on course over time.

Through my search for high quality advisors in the San Francisco Bay Area, I find a lack of a well defined philosophy or a reliance on rhetoric to often be at the core of advisor performance problems. Investors lacking a philosophy are more easily drawn to overhyped investment opportunities only to be burned when they subsequently abandon these investments near market lows. Buy high, sell low is obviously not a viable philosophy but one far too many investors unwittingly follow.

My best advice for developing an investment philosophy is to read and listen to the philosophies of successful investors. The Candor Resource Library contains links to several books and video to get you started. As you work through the volumes of information, take notes and remember this observation from legendary hedge fund manager George Soros. “When the chips are down, philosophy is the most important part of my life.”

3. Develop a Disciplined Investment Process

Your investment process emanates from your investment philosophy. It will address how you will build and maintain your investment portfolio. From the allocation of your assets to its implementation and monitoring, your investment process will define how you go about investing with the discipline of a professional.