It wasn't that long ago that we celebrated the July 4th holiday weekend with our family, friends and members of our extended Dolan family on our national radio show and at Dolans.com.

Care to guess what everyone wanted to talk about?

Not the fireworks, or the food or the holiday sales. No, everyone wanted to talk to about the stock market. Or, we should say, the bear market.

And no wonder. The Dow fell below 11,000 for the first time in two years, and we don't see signs of it getting better anytime soon.

If that has you worried, we're here to help. I (Ken here) started getting involved with the market in the early 1970s when I became a broker/financial planner in Boston. I've been around for all sorts of bull and bear market cycles, and these it's been a very tricky market recently.

Let's talk about a few "rules of the road" to help you invest in a recession – no matter how volatile the market gets:

Rule #1: Catch some z's

This is something Daria and I have been talking about for 20 years, and it's number one in our 10 Simple Rules of Investing. We call it the "Dolan Sleep Quotient," and it boils down to this: Are you staying awake at night worrying about your investments?

Forget the market for a second and ask yourself this question: How comfortable are you with what you own? If you're uncomfortable and worried, that may be a sign that you need to switch to more conservative investments like CDs or money market funds.

Rule #2: Know what you own

It sounds obvious, but in volatile times, an awful lot of investors get concerned because they don't really understand what they've invested in. They haven't taken the time to learn. Make the effort to understand what you own and why.

If you can't come up with a good reason for owning an investment, that should tell you something. On the other hand...