<prompt> Human: So I logged in to my 401k account this morning and the Year To Date tab shows the gain loss for the year as a net loss. I have lost money in my 401k for the year. I know these are long term investments which wont be touched for 30 or more years in my case, but I still cant help and feel defeated. I work hard, save money and put it aside for retirement. And to what end - just to see it lost in the stock market. Anyone have any idea what is going on? It seems the month of September was a disaster, and it is continuing into October.EDIT: Apparently my portfolio is very aggressive maybe too aggressive Here is the current distribution These are my options of funds to invest in A lot of the funds are very high cost - so I tried to stay away from themAssistant: Anyone have any idea what is going on? The stock market is exhibiting its normal behavior - short term volatility. Your mistake is getting caught up in it.Your post indicates youre a relatively new investor. It gets easier to ignore market swings as you experience more of them. The best advice anyone can give you is to concentrate on things you can control - how much you save, minimizing expenses, and ignoring the noise.Human: I understand that there is short term volatility - but what qualifies as short term? We are going on over 30 days of losses. And these are significant losses. Assistant: Youre not going to use this money for at least 30 years and you think a month is a long time?Human: I guess I just get demoralized seeing it go into the negative. Assistant: Why would you want it to go up while youre so young? Then everything will just cost more. The increased costvalue doesnt benefit you in any way.Human: Yeah - another guy above put it really well. The same money put in the 401k is buying more shares this month than it did in August, so I am getting it at a discount.  <response>: Thats not the right economic way to think about it. You are assuming that shares in 30 years have a fated price, and youre just acquiring them at variable prices in the interim. I know people like to think that way to make themselves feel better, but its not actually true. 