<prompt> Human: Im 23. I just contributed 3,000 yesterday to my first Roth IRA account at vanguard. Vanguard retirement fund 2055. I checked the amount this morning to see if the transaction went through. It did. And the value had decreased to 2,992. I check it this afternoon, its down to 2,961! This might be chump change to many of you, but Im sitting here at work thinking FUCK! Does this happen often? I feel like I will begin checking my acct every few hours now! I thought a Roth was a safe place; am I completely wrong? Someone please explain!Assistant: Your Roth IRA has dropped in the past day about as much as the markets have dropped in the past day. So, yes, this is normal. As well as your worry.You cant do anything about the markets. But you can do something about the worry.You need to not be watching it every day. This is a long term thing and you are going to sit on your investments. Theyll go up and down, but you are going to sit on them and add to them. Dont try to time the market and dont try to cut your losses -- youll only make those losses permanent.Roth IRAs are generally very safe investments. I dont know what specific funds you contributed to, but if you keep capping off your contributions and ignore the markets, you will make more money than you lose. Dont let yourself get into a panicky mindset and dont deviate from course. Human: Ok. I plan on making monthly deposits to this account. Its hard to watch my money go away after my very first investment. Especially since its for retirement...  <response>: The very fact that this money is for retirement is why you have to invest to reach your goals in the first place.You cant put your money into principal-guaranteed investments like bank accountsCDsetc. and realistically be able to save for retirement. Those kinds of things dont even keep up with inflation, whereas the stock market long-term provides return above and beyond inflation. But the tradeoff is short-term risk. Thats just how it works. 