Workbook — Investing · Created October 4, 2026 · 2 min read
Define Your Game
Write the rules before the market tests them.
Pension funds and university endowments run on a written investment policy statement: what the money is for, how long it can stay invested, what risks it may take and what would make the managers sell. This worksheet is the household version. Every account gets its own one-page statement — the seven lines from What Investing Game Are You Playing? — and every purchase and sale is logged against it.
What This Workbook Does
- One tab per account. Emergency fund, a dated goal, retirement and a speculative account come filled in with example answers; two blank tabs are ready for the rest. Copy a tab to add another.
- The seven lines at the top of each tab: objective, return engine, time horizon, claimed edge, what you can tolerate, what would prove the thesis wrong, and the scoreboard — with drop-down menus and a space to say it in your own words.
- A position log. Before you buy, record the game, return engine, horizon, edge, thesis and exit rule for that holding. The sheet flags any holding playing a different game from its account, and any holding larger than the size limit you set.
- A sales log that handles partial sales. Record each sale against the lot it came from; shares still held, the share-of-account check and your gain or loss update themselves. Each sale asks whether your exit rule actually fired, and the totals count the sales where it did not.
How to Use It
- Open one tab for each separate pool of money and fill in the seven lines. Replace the example answers with your own.
- Keep one game per account. If two games fit the same money, that is a sign it needs a second account.
- Before every purchase, fill in a row of the position log — especially the thesis and the exit rule. If you cannot write them, you are not ready to buy.
- When you sell, all or part of a holding, add a row to the sales log and answer honestly whether the exit rule fired.
- Review the seven lines once a year, at a calm moment. Change the rules then, not in the middle of a decline.
What It Will Not Do
The workbook checks your entries against your own rules. It cannot tell you whether a game or a security is suitable for you, it does not pull market prices, and the size check uses what you paid rather than what a holding is worth today. Gains and losses are before taxes and fees. Terms such as thesis, return engine and edge are explained in What Investing Game Are You Playing?, and the full catalog of strategies the drop-down menus draw on is in the Investment Strategies Reference.