<prompt> Human: I have a very tiny, extremely small understanding of 401k, stocks, investing, etc. This is a screen shot of my 401k investment dashboardidk whats going on. This 401k is also through Associated bank, so if you have that for 401k that would be helpful too. What happens if market value drops? will my investment turn to crap? there is also a 200 dollar spike you can see as well.EDIT: Thanks everyone, with all the info i got im starting to get an idea of what im looking at. you guysgals are awesome :DAssistant: Barring the obvious answer for the spike being a larger final paycheck of the year due to bonusescommission or what have you, it is almost certainly reinvested dividendsgains. My 401k sees a similar bump each December and an extra line item listed as such is included in the transaction history. OP can verify the source by finding the transaction log.Ill also explain a bit more about your graph. The solid black line represents the contributions made to your account be it from your paycheck or employer contributions if any. This line represents how much cash you have given to your account. Once the cash is in the account, it is immediately converted into shares of an investment fund. In your case, you elected to put all of your investment in the Growth Balanced Lifestage Fund. If you were investingin multiple funds, then your pie chart on teh left would have other colors and funds listed.Now, the Green shaded area above the solid black line bounded by the blue line represents the market value of your portfolio. It is green because your investment has gained value compared to the price that you spent on it. If it lost value, the black line would remain the same, but the shaded area would turn red and be below that line rather than above it. Hopefully, the other figures are self-explanatory.Human: so, i was under the assumption that a 401k is basically a big savings account that accrues interest. everything on this chart has been done for me automatically. i just checked the box yes, and sey my that goes into the 401k. is that normally the case? Its worrying that you said it is immediately converted into shares of an investment fund. does this mean the money that I have put into 401k not really my money anymore, and it just floats around hoping to make an investment on something? my concern then is, if that investment fails, what happens to the eventually thousands of dollars that i saved away for my retirement? would it just be better to put that same amount in a basic savings account?  <response>: A basic savings account loses value over time due to inflation. You should definitely be invested when talking about saving for retirement.Inflation often seems like an abstract concept, but the easiest way to think of it is in terms of monthly expenses. Lets say that you save 100. That might be enough for your cable bill right now. So every time you save 100, you save 1 months worth of cable.But then, the cable company decides to raise prices by 50 a month. Now, the 1,000 cant cover 10 months of cable anymore, it can only cover about 6-7 months worth of cable.Thats what inflation is. The cost of things goes up over time, and unless your investments are out pacing the inflation rate, youre losing purchasing power every year. If you were to try and buy the same thing in 1998 and 2018, it generally costs about 50 more today than it did back then.If you invest, your money grows. If you put it in a savings account, it effectively shrinks. 