Protecting your investiment

My approach is to be smart.
As you know any lock can be easily defeated by a determined criminal.
So if they want to break in bad enough they will.
That said, given a choice a criminal will pick the easy mark over a harder one.

Our job is to make it hard for them and make them pass on breaking in.
Make sure you have no signs that you're not home. Have good lighting. Don't have places where criminals can hide easily.

I also believe in having extra cars and an unpredictable schedule. Don't come and go on a schedule if you can avoid it.
And my favorite is have a dog.
Study after study state that dogs are a huge deterrent to criminals.

Beyond that, I really like the new remote video doorbells, and digital security cameras. While I wouldn't depend on them like they do in adds I see them as part of a fully security strategy.

Oh and of course do the basics too. Lock doors, pick up mail, newspapers and such and get to know your neighbors.
In my case it's nice working from home most of the time and having a police officer next door.
And a very vocal and protective dog helps too.

Hopefully my alarm system will protect my home when I'm not there, a good dog helps too. I do have extra window and locks installed, but window locks are easily defeated just by breaking the window. My biggest concern is a random home invasion which seems to be a popular thing now with todays thugs. Two or three thugs with weapons kick your front door in, terrorize, beat or worse for the family. Steal anything of value in two or three minutes and then they're gone (this type of crime isn't done in low income areas). I have a 6' double entry steel front door that with enough force, could be easily defeated.

I've used an old school method of securing these double entry doors at night by using the cross brace method utilizing a steel bed frame rail that I've notched to fit where the brackets are installed. I made up four U shaped steel brackets,. I installed two in the door jamb on each side of the door opening thru the studs with lag bolts. The other two brackets I bolted thru the doors where both doors come together with round headed carriage bolts. Once I place the cross bar into the brackets in the evening, that entry point is secured enough to at least buy me enough time to reach my weapon, if its breached at all. I did the same thing to my double entry doors going out to the back of the house. These back doors are rarely used, so the cross bar is usually in place on the back entry doors most of the time.

On wooden windows you can drill an 1/8th inch hole it the top of the lower half of the window and insert a nail, locking the window. On doors, you can add a plate over the locking mechanism to strengthen the lock area and change the striker plate screws out to some that are long enough to reach through the trim into the heavier framing. Keep the bushes trimmed from around the windows to make them more visible. None of this is fool proof, its just buys a little time.