If its risky, whats other option for me to make money on market during recession?

Basically I am interested in puts/ shorting stock,as I regularly buy stock but I always have to wait for it to go down and then buy the "dip". So I wanted to also try to make money when the market is going down.

So I should only buy puts/calls in amount I can afford, got it. Also, what is exactly the difference between puts and short position?

So the only risk of calls/ puts is paying for the privilage (its called premium right?) ?