I have had some pretty good jobs in my life. I have been an Editor-In-Chief of a weekly newspaper, an Assistant Publisher of a daily newspaper – and now, a Press Secretary to the Mayor of New York City. So why am I always broke?

It seems that no matter how much money I make, I always seem to live paycheck to paycheck. Religiously, my wallet is filled every pay Friday – and emptied before that Sunday night. It’s like a vicious cycle that I can’t break no matter how hard I try.

I am not saying that I am drowning in debt. If anything, I have a few credit cards that total less then four thousand dollars, which in today’s debt-filled world is nothing. But for some reason, the money in my wallet always seems to just be visiting rather then staying for a while.

One major reason for my lack of funds is what I have come to call, “The Monthly Disaster”. It seems as if every month, another “incident” occurs that costs me hundreds of dollars which was earmarked to lower my credit card balances, or pay a few lingering bills. But now, that money has to go somewhere else and the bills have to wait – again. These “Monthly Disasters” range from having to pay hundreds for a towed car, to having to buy a new bed, to having to send more then half of my paycheck to our lovely IRS, to so many other things that I await each new month with curiosity as to what will happen this time that will cost me half my paycheck or more.

Besides being annoying – being so poor that I can’t pay attention is sometimes really embarrassing. Many times my friends ask me to join them for a night on the town and I have to say no because I can’t afford it. Or, a lady asks me if I would like to go to dinner and I have to decline because the only place I can afford to take her is Taco Bell. Or even worse – there are times when I have to ask my friends at work to buy me lunch because I am starving and penniless.

I work very hard at succeeding in life, which explains why I am where I am. It just seems that while I excel at getting great jobs that people would kill for – I just can’t seem to hang on to the money that comes with these great jobs. Hopefully, the day will come where I can be as successful financially as I am professionally and personally. Until then – can you lend me five bucks until next payday?