O Money, where art thou?

The SMS message which I love to read is the one which says "Your salary of Rs.***** (yeah, it's a 5-digit number - I work in the software industry!!!) has been credited to your A/C". This is the ideal way to start a new month and it gives me a feeling of being rich. But when I check my account on the 10th day of the month, the balance would be Rs.*** and by the 20th day, it would be Rs.**. And I get all my unexpected expenses only after that - a sudden visit by a long-lost friend, maid needs some advance, LIC Premium etc. But where did all my money go. Where did my feeling of being rich disappear? The answer, very frankly, is "I don't know".

I am very very poor in managing my money. The reason is that I put a lot of things before money (just like a lot of other people) and I forget about money when those things are present. For example, if I go out with my friends, by the end of day, I have no idea how much money I spent and how much I owe others or others owe me (the other day, I received a mail from my friend saying that he had to give me money during my Germany trip. I had no idea what he was talking about). This is really good in the eyes of noble men/women who preach that money is the source of all evil. But then, when my account blanks out before the end of month, the noble men/women hardly come to help me out.

As a solution to my pathetic money management, I am planning to marry someone who is strong in managing finance (if she is financially strong, that is an added incentive ;-) ). Till then, I have to get a good friend who can lend me money on the 21st of each month.