eli5: How do IRA’s gain money overtime?

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From what I understand, you put money into this account (either post or pre taxed based upon what type of ira ur doing) and you invest it in certain things. But what I don’t get is how does this mean your money is consistently going up? Wouldn’t the money increase or decrease based upon the stuff you invested in, since it isn’t concrete money but invested money.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

>Wouldn’t the money increase or decrease based upon the stuff you invested in, since it isn’t concrete money but invested money.

Yes, this is exactly the case. If you make bad investments, you can lose money in your IRA.

Ideally, you *diversify* such that if one investment loses money, it’s offset by another investment gaining money. Or, you invest in something that’s already diversified like a target-date fund or an index fund.

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