A bear market can be brutal for investors. The more than 20% decline in stock prices has many investment portfolios well off their recent peak.

However, bear markets can be a blessing in disguise if you own dividend-paying stocks. That's because there's an inverse relationship between stock prices and dividend yields. With the bear market taking stock prices down sharply, dividend yields are soaring. That allows investors to reinvest their dividends at higher yields. They can also use their idle cash to generate more income. That can enable investors to supercharge their passive income.   

Some investors automatically reinvest their dividends, while others manually invest that cash as they see fit. Either way, a bear market turns that dividend income into even more passive income.

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Source Fool.com