Monday Check-in

Good morning and happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Let’s check-in.

On Friday evening, I grabbed a cappuccino ($4) before heading to movie night at a friend’s place ($4 for a streaming rental), and then the rest of the weekend was a blur of grocery shopping ($47.58), a haircut ($60), and ended with a spontaneous dinner at Marta, Danny Meyer’s new restaurant at the Martha Washington hotel. We ordered charred octopus, rabbit meatballs, two pizzas, beer-brined chicken, whipped potatoes, two bottles of wine, and an ice cream panino (pictured; my share: $83.41). “This spontaneous dinner will break my estimate,” I told my friends. “My goal is to always get you to break your estimate,” my friend Lar said, amused. It was worth it. I had estimated $125 on Friday and ended up spending $198.99.

And how were your weekends?

Bonus weekend story:

Apropos of nothing, the person who cut my hair asked me how my retirement account was doing.

— Mike Dang (@reportermike) October 12, 2014

The stock market suffered its biggest losses last week in two and a half years, and he wanted to know what I thought. The answer, of course, was: “It doesn’t matter how my retirement account is doing right now.” Because it doesn’t matter how the stock market is doing today if you’re not touching that money until you’re ready to retire. Continue making regular contributions.

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