Matthew Ferry's Blog

I just spoke with an amazing young executive who was feeling very glum.

“I just completed my taxes and I made $500K last year.” he says in a somber voice.  “Wow!  That is incredible for a 30-something like yourself to make that kind of money” I fire back.

“Yeah but what happened to it?  I didn’t save. I didn’t invest.  I feel like an idiot.” He tells me.

Here was my response:

Isn’t it bizarre that The Drunk Monkey (your mind) hates you and torments you?  You have an amazing life.  You make huge money and rather then celebrating the victory of being in the top 1% of all income earners on planet frickin’ Earth, The Drunk Monkey finds some way of tearing you down.

Should my client save more money? I don’t know, it sounds prudent, but why?  Because you and I have been conditioned to believe that what other people think is more important then what we think.

Just because the general rule of thumb is save money, doesn’t mean it’s right for everyone.

Now don’t get me wrong here.  I’m not recommending that people don’t save money.  I’m simply asking you to stop allowing The Drunk Monkey to beat you up.

I asked him, “Did you enjoy yourself?”  Yes.

Did you know you were spending your money? Yes

Did you choose to spend your money?  Yes

And now that you have done that, do you have a new intention for this year?  Yes!

Great!  You had fun and now you have a new intention to save money.  That’s not bad.  You are not bad.  Life is not bad.  That’s all just The Drunk Monkey’s propensity to look for what might be wrong and fix it.  But, spending you money and having fun is not wrong.  Having a new intention to save you money is not better then spending it.  You have the distinct pleasure of experiencing both.  Lucky you!

When you feel good, you are stronger, more resourceful and have more power.  Don’t let The Drunk Monkey beat you up just because you have a new idea today and it’s different then what you did yesterday.  Yesterday it seemed like a good idea.