This is a tough time to be an investor. The S&P 500 is down by roughly 20% from its peak in early January, putting it into bear market territory, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is down more than 27% year to date.

In times like these, it's easy to feel pessimistic and discouraged about investing. It can even be tempting to get out of stocks altogether. But the future still looks bright for the stock market, and there are two good reasons to be optimistic right now.

The stock market has experienced its fair share of rough times. In the past two decades alone, it has seen everything from the bursting of the dot-com bubble  to the Great Recession to the crash in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite everything, the S&P 500 is up by more than 162% since 2000.

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Source Fool.com