My retirement fund that I just started was worth $15k in December of 2021. Then, May of 2022, our area was hit really hard. My retirement plan went down to $7k. Today, it’s worth $11k. I lost $4k on my retirement plan. It’s invested in total market funds, some tech, some big cap companies, and healthcare. But every sector has been ravaged by the stock market changes.
Not every sector has.
What is showing itself as a major weakness in retirement saving is that a lot of retirement account managers think that bonds are relatively safe when they really aren’t.
The Great Recession went bad because they miscalculated the risk of two unrelated mortgages going bad.
When Covid hit, the increase in interest rates devalued a lot of bonds, something that wasn’t seen since the 1980’s.
Most of the people here who are confused by your accounts’ performance probably have a mix of index funds tied to a basket of stocks.