Financial Woes

Have a relatively free weekend this time. Played at the office football tournament in the morning (was not very exciting, since I did not get to play much, but atleast my team won 2 out of the 3 matches we played).

As usual, my sister came over in the evening. Saw a bit of "Ice Age" with my niece, but mostly spent time sleeping and snivelling :(

Because of the slight cold I have developed, I have decided to spend tomorrow at home and catch up on reading. I am presently still working on Hamlet (I began reading it over a month ago), and also reading a book called "The Intelligent Investor" by Benjamin Graham. The book is considered a classic on value investing, and Warren Buffet is one of the admirers of Graham. I am enjoying the book very much too, and hope to learn valuable lessons in the art of picking good long-term equity investments.

Speaking of investing, I had a look at my bank statement today. Am going through a severe liquidity crunch. My spending has exceeded my expectations. I have a huge loan repayment to make (since I decided to prepay the entire amount I borrowed for my European trip, half of it refinanced by my parents), for which I have already deposited a cheque with my bank. Problem is that the cheque could be presented for payment anytime during the next two weeks, and my account balance is running perilously close to the cheque amount. I expect some cash inflows over the next few days (salary, interest, dividends), but do not even want to think about all the hassles I'll face if that cheque bounches for any reason. All that combined means that I have had to borrow more money from my mom to be able to give a gift my sister on Raksha Bandhan :( For a graduate of WIMWI, working in a fairly cushy job in Bombay, that is simply a question mark on my basic financial competence. My plan is to pay off all my debt, fund my proposed foreign vacation and hopefully buy a computer and camera with my regular salary income by April 1, 2008; so that my entire bonus can be invested in a long-term plan. Did some rough calculations - with my present spending patterns, it is not going to happen :( What will I do?