<prompt> Human: Im looking at a target date fund for 2055 for a Roth 401k through American Funds with my employer, read the sidebar and the ELI5 page, but still not sure if this is right for me. Its high risk, right? Im pretty young, and the retirement adviser who came in to talk with us said this would be the best move for me. If something happens and the market sucks up my savings, am I just shit out of luck?  <response>: Its high risk, right? Im pretty young, and the retirement adviser who came in to talk with us said this would be the best move for me. If something happens and the market sucks up my savings, am I just shit out of luck?The market will go down. It is likely that there will be several recessions between now and your retirement. But thats fine, as long as you dont sell during a downturn. So dont do that.As you get closer to retirement age, your fund will shift assets from stocks to bonds. Even in the event of a recession during retirement, you will be able to live on the bonds and wait for the stocks to come back up, if you saved enough money.The only people who lose money when the market is down are the ones who sell. Investors who have self-control will actually buy when the market is down, because they will make money when it comes back up. Your target date fund will automatically rebalance, so this part is taken care of for you -- if the fund is supposed to be X stock right now, and stock prices fall, the fund will buy more stock to get back up to X. 