A tiring Bull and preparation for a hidden Bear?

It’s been a long Bull for some years already.

Markets have recently hit new highs.

Don’t call me a naysayer, but usually a correction follows. With the Feds looking to increase rates, a Bear may be approaching soon.

I feel that we should prepare for a possible bear market. Here’s some ideas:

Disclaimer: I have lived through both the 2004 and the 2008 with no equities nor cash so this is a purely POV thing. Take it with a grain of salt.

• Prepare cash savings to buy in when opportunity presents. Many stocks and funds could be bought at discounted prices, so prepare a stash of cash you can spare (no, no such thing as ALL-IN, you must be prepared to lose, not all companies survive crashes, some, sadly, fold).
• Manage risk exposure. Most people are forced to sell are also because they bought on margins when prices where rising (much too high most of the time). Or they bought in more than they could afford to lose, thinking that prices will only keep rising, greed fades, fear sets in and panic.
• Don’t attempt to guess tops and bottoms. You’ll never know where the tops and bottoms are. Sure, there’s S&R for you traders there, but can anyone actually accurately say where is the Top and where is the Bottom of the market cycle? The answer is no, you’ll never know until it happens. React to change. Not predict it. Avoid heavy speculation and manage the risk of the upsides and downsides.
• Psychology and Discipline. These are the most important factors of investing, trading and even your life. All plans fail if you do not follow them. A bear market for many people are a combination of the crushing of greed and pride and the spike up in fear and panicking. These cloud judgment and logic. It leads to revenge trading, or even being so frightened to avoid good opportunities when they present themselves.
• Adding bonds to portfolios. These could help to hedge and preserve wealth during downturns. (But do realise, Bond funds =/= actual bonds, funds are more heavily affected by interest rate increases. But also realise that the actual bonds here are rather pricey and taxable.) It is good to know that, the older you are, less risk is preferred and more capital preservation is preferred. If your risk appetite is low, might want to go for more capital preservation I guess. A suggested portfolio that is balanced I usually read online would be 60% equities and 40% bonds (excluding cash).

If all else fails, I guess the only option is just to leave your money to financial planners to get you a regular premium plan that dollar averages (those regular premium unit trusts and like).

What would you do in preparation for a Bear market?