remember one thing, even for a bear market,

even for a secular bear market that last for a decade or 2, society as a whole still advances, we can still find good stocks, maybe the stock price is not going up, but if it offers enough dividend, who cares? Like epd at 16.5 offers u 12.5% dividend rate, if economy gets bad, and volume of natural gas in its pipe line decreases, dividend may decrease, but it won't be much.

A lot of companies grow through out of bear market, read Perter Lynch's book, you will find a lot of surprises. It is not that hard to find winners in bear market, according to him, if u pay attention. A lot of people forget about stocks all together in a bear market, so it is actually easier to invest in bear market.