Have you ever put on a jacket you haven't worn in a while, and pulled a $20 bill out of the pocket that you forgot about? This is kind of like that.

Finding Money That's Already Yours

There is no better feeling than finding money you forgot you had. The other day, I found a $5 bill in my wallet, that I had completely forgotten about, You would have thought I hit the jackpot at the local casino. Sure, $5 won't buy my groceries this week, but it will buy my next iced coffee. Now, you may have $5 waiting for you, or you may have $50 waiting for you through unclaimed property but you have to go check and see.

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Unclaimed Property

So what is unclaimed property? Essentially, it's money owed to someone that has been sitting with no activity for a long time. This can be anything from unclaimed wages to deposits and overpayments. Indiana Unclaimed explains:

Any financial asset with no activity by its owner for an extended period of time is considered unclaimed property. This includes unclaimed wages or commissions; savings and checking accounts; stock dividends; insurance proceeds; underlying shares; customer deposits or overpayments; certificates of deposit; credit balances; refunds; money orders; and safe deposit box contents. The organization holding the potential unclaimed property makes every effort to contact the owner and establish activity through an online login, written correspondence, a withdrawal or deposit, or an update to personal information. If these attempts do not produce activity, the asset is reported to the state of the owner’s last known address.

Photo by 金运 on Unsplash

Do You Have any Unclaimed Money?

Well, you might! When dropping my name into the website, I didn't have any, but I did have a few family members who got a few bucks from it. You can head over to IndianaUnclaimed.gov, and type in your information to start looking for any money that you might not know you have!