<prompt> Human: Im a 21 year old college student and just put 5000 in my first Roth IRA. I put all of it in a target retirement fund. Despite SP and many stock indicators that I watch going up over the past few days, my account balance has declined - which I dont understand. Have I made a terrible mistake? To me, this is a lot of money and I almost feel like Ive made an awful investment. Please help!  <response>: What is significantly lower?The SP 500 is down slightly over the last week. Short term fluctuations are normal in mutual fund pricing. Since this is a long term investment, there is no reason to get excited about changes good or bad in the value. Over the next 40 years, youll see the value of your investments grow. Youll probably be best off checking your IRA balance once every 6 months or 1 year, rather than watching it daily.Also keep in mind that the price of mutual funds arent updated until the end of the trading day, so todays good market wont be reflected in your holdings until later tonight. 