When the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 20,000 for the first time ever in January, investors cheered.

"Unbelievable," investor Alan Benson declared. "It was a very celebratory day!"

Despite the good times, many investors can't help but worry, given the divisive times in our country.

"I'm really nervous about it," investor Syble DuBose said.  "I think it's incredibly chaotic, really."

Benson agreed that all the political hostility between Democrats and Republicans is creating uncertainty.

“There’s so much negativity.  We’ve never really seen the country this polarized. It’s really not nice what’s going on,” Benson said.

Impact on Financial Markets

Sequoia Financial Group’s Chief Investment Officer Russell Moenich talked about the crazy ride over the past year at an investment seminar in Tampa recently.

"2016 was absolutely bonkers in terms of stuff that went on in the market and affected the market. It was a crazy year," he said.

Moenich says the rally since President Donald Trump's election has a lot to do with the administration's pro-business agenda, which includes tax cuts, cutting regulations, and repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

"If they get all this stuff done, that's the real key. They've got to get the stuff done, because as we know the political process is messy. It's like sausage making. No one wants to see it happening, but it's happening; and we’re all watching very, very closely," Moenich said.

Block Out the Noise

Whether you're listening to the pundits on TV or reading articles in investment magazines it's good to take-in information, but don't fall into the trap of using "all the noise" to make knee jerk decisions on investments.

“All kinds of stuff happens in the short term and generally it does not pay to react negatively to that,” Moenich explained.

Investor Syble DuBose has the right idea.  She says she and her husband try to focus on investing for the long-term.

"We've seen a lot of ups and downs and we're just not people to who try to time it," DuBose said. "We don't try to buy and sell. We just kind of stay steady and that's just fine."

Another important way to insulate yourself from market turmoil is to diversify, something investor Alan Benson makes a point of doing.

"You never know, you’ve got to have a hedge," Benson said. "We try to do a little bit of a lot of different things."

Watch Interest Rates

One important thing to keep an eye on is interest rates. The Federal Reserve increases short-term interest rates to off-set inflation when the economy begins to grow, but doing it too fast can create big problems.

"They have a tendency to raise interest rates a little bit too much. Chokes off the economic expansion and we hit recession," Moenich explained. “The Fed has been the primary cause for every business cycle downturn, except one, going back 100 years,” he continued.

The Fed just raised its benchmark interest rate on March 15th, for the second time in three months; and is expected to raise interest rates two to three more times this year.

Once again, the best way to protect yourself is to diversity your portfolio.

"A broad based portfolio is best. Equities, a good chunk of your portfolio in fixed income, even though interest rates are going higher," Moenich explained. "We do think it's important to have some alternatives sprinkled into your portfolio; things like real estate investments, infrastructure, MLPs (Master Limited Partnerships or publicly traded partnerships), and natural resource investments."

Uncertainty is Certain

When it comes to investing, they say the only thing that's certain is uncertainty. So whether the market is riding high or low, the best advice is not to try and time the market. Slow and steady investing over time is generally what pays off.