last year in September i opened an IRA and investment account (Ameriprise) and bought index funds (CSIEX) with the money
then a month later, after I knew I had enough money, I doubled the amount – I put more money in
the index fund grew pretty well for a few months and then lost quite a lot of value with the Ukraine war (20%)
throughout the whole time I was looking at Mint and going: “huh I only see the amount I put in in September. Why is the October amount not shown?”

now I know why
I only transferred money to the financial institution, but I also had to buy more index fund with that money. It was just sitting there as “Cash/Sweep”
I thought the money I transfer from my bank would automatically buy more index funds smh
it was sitting there in my account for an entire year, not being invested :facepalm:

on the upshot though, if I had figured out to properly invested that cash last year, I would have lost twice the value I lost over the course of 2022
the cash stash didn’t lose value. it just got charged some small FTC fees each quarter
:yonghuh:

apparently I have to “place a trade” but the web interface is not showing CSIEX as a valid symbol :yonghuh:

i’m gonna ask the agent who opened the account last year how to do this thing :yonghuh: