Learning valuable lessons

So, I decided the other day to role the dice with my meager retirement savings through the UC system just to see what would happen. Or rather with 44% of it anyway. I bought into a long range fund managed by the UC system, and it immediately lost money. I went from having $411 in my retirement to $409. Stupid stock market. Why did I choose to buy into a retirement based on stocks during the worst starting weeks for the market in 17 years? Who knows. What I did learn is that investing is a long term process. I'm already rallying. When I checked it today, it was up to $410.95. Yeah, I'm going to be on easy street. - S