Keep Your Shields Up When Navigating the Investment Space

Remember the Star Trek episodes of years past? Whenever the Starship Enterprise was under attack, Capt. Kirk would shout something like, "Shields up! Red alert!" The crew would then spring into action just before entering the danger zone.

This got me thinking about the recent market volatility and wondering what average everyday investors can do to protect themselves and activate their own personal "shield," if you will. In my opinion, this "shield of protection" is created way before you experience a drastic decline in the markets like we saw in October and again in December of 2018.

Most of us, cognitively, know the basic rules of investing, such as building a diversified portfolio, staying disciplined long term, rebalancing back to targets