I surf in some pretty murky areas....(Not for the reasons you are thinking)....Anyway, I have never had a virus or any Trojans dumped on me that have not been caught....Luck?..Maybe, but, My AV etc catch plenty before they can do any damage.
I use Comodo firewall, Avast anti virus, and Spyware Terminator running Real time Shield.
On tests my system is running invisibly. Periodically scan with Malwarebytes and online virus scan to make sure.
Nothing complicated or too technical done.
I think that people like the OP (and Me!) don't need to be blinded by technology or be too scared to do anything. At the end of the day the best protection for your computer is plain old common sense....