Visa today released the results of a survey it commissioned:

Every year, about $2,340 in cash "disappears" from Americans' wallets when they simply lose track of their spending, according to a new survey commissioned by Visa USA.

Nearly half of all Americans lose track of significant amounts of cash spending every year, according to the survey. In fact, 48 percent of Americans say they can't account for more than one-third of their cash, spending an average of $120 in a typical week, but losing track of $45. Among those who report "mystery spending," men under age 35 are the worst at monitoring where it all goes, losing track of more than $3,000 a year on average.

"It's understandable that consumers would lose track of some cash over the course of a week, but we were surprised by how much cash goes unaccounted for at the end of a week - a dollar here and a dollar there definitely adds up," said Wayne Best, Visa's chief economist. "On the bright side, the survey found that people believe plastic can help them manage their money. Four out of five debit cardholders said that using a debit card helps them track their spending."

In other words, stop using cash and put your spending on a Visa-branded debit card and you'll no longer lose track of what you spend your money on. How so?

"A Visa check card draws upon the funds readily available in your checking account and provides a record of all purchases, making it an effective way to manage money," said Stacey Pinkerd, senior vice president, consumer debit products, Visa USA. "When you view your bank statement, that $2.99 latte from last Tuesday pops up, so there's no question where the money went."

OK, so now that I can see where it all went, I suppose that helps me know that I didn't get pickpocketed and actually did spend the money on real things. But how does that stop me from losing track of my money? Wouldn't the goal be for me to think about my spending as I'm doing it?

The part of the news release I find the funniest:

One in five people who admit to misplacing more than $25 in cash per week say their mystery spending is "out of control," and 62 percent feel that "small cash purchases make it difficult to track spending." Furthermore, 47 percent say that "mystery spending makes budgeting difficult."

I like how they use those statements in quotes, as if the survey respondents actually said "mystery spending makes budgeting difficult" instead of just agreeing with the statement that Visa had made up.

I'd like to design my own survey and force the respondents to agree with statements they'd never actually utter and then quote the results.

I'd ask things like "How do you spend the majority of your money? (Check all that apply):

(A) Monster truck rallies and other embarrassing things I'd rather not talk about
(B) stuffing my face
(C) Mortgages and/or car payments and/or Internet porn
(D) Spoiling my kids with miniature Hummers that my parents never in a million years would've bought for me back in a less-indulgent age

Then I could issue a press release that said "Fifty-five percent of respondents said they spend the majority of their money on "mortgages and/or car payments and/or Internet porn."

Maybe Visa will hire me next time they commission a survey.