The past year has been catastrophic for many investors. Runaway inflation and rapidly rising interest rates triggered a stock market meltdown that has erased more than $9 trillion in wealth. In fact, the S&P 500 had its worst first half since 1970 as recession fears drove the benchmark index into a bear market.

Coping with massive losses can be difficult for investors, but dealing with uncertainty is often the hardest part of any downturn. It's impossible to predict when the stock market will rebound, but smart investors do know one thing: Now is the best time to buy stocks. In fact, Warren Buffett once said, "The best chance to deploy capital is when things are going down."

Here are two reasons why that's true.

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Source Fool.com