You may have money you didn't know you had

First things first.  I don’t have a new item to sell or trade but I did find some money that I did not know was there.  And the cool thing is you may have some money you don’t know about as well.  A friend showed me a government web site that has unclaimed property being held by the state.  I figured, I’ll waste 10 minutes, go on it and find nothing.  Well, low and behold when I entered my information into the site, the state of Tennessee was holding $39 for me from some unknown source.  I quickly filled out the on-line claim form and the money is on its way to my mail box as I type.  While I was there, I also checked for my brother’s name and he had $250 from an old bank account for which he should pay me a finder’s fee for telling him about it… can you say half… (I’m not holding my breath) but I digress.

 Let me try to explain where the money comes from.  If a vender, utility company, insurance provider, or any number of other places owes you money i.e.:   an old utility deposit, possibly  you overpaid a bill or an old inactive bank account and they cannot track you down (or are too lazy to track you down) then they are required to send the money to the state.  The state then holds it in their unclaimed property account until you check out the site and claim it. 

I am all about folks getting their hard earned money back from the government so I went through my Facebook friends list and found hundreds if not thousands of dollars for my friends and family in five different states.  You can also enter business names to see if the state is holding anything for your business.  For example, I am friends with “The Dave Ramsey Show” on Facebook .  For those of you who don’t know who he is, he is a very well-known financial advisor on Radio and T.V.  Anyway, as I was going through my Facebook friends list, finding money, I came across him.  I thought it would be so hilarious if he had unclaimed money he did not know about.  Well, I searched his name, his wife’s name, his kid’s names…Nothing.  Then I entered his company name….and………wait for it……...bingo $150 of unclaimed cash for the King of cash (he hates credit)…Dave Ramsey.  I posted it on his FB and because he just so happens to live in the same town as I do, I may even drop by his broadcast studio to make sure he knows. 

Where do I go to find my unclaimed cash?  Glad you asked.  Here is what you do.  Just Google your state, department of treasury unclaimed property. Click on the site and it will have a place for you to enter your name.  The search engine will search the data base and voila,  bada bing- bada boom you may have money you didn’t know you had.  Fill out a claim form and wait by the mail box. 

Then, if your just so.. grateful that someone told you about this previously unknown windfall, feel free to donate a “portion” to  ‘’The Sky’s The Limit” My American Dream.  In the mean time I’ll be by my mail box holding my breath.
 Please comment below and let me know how much, if any, you find. 
Also I wanted to let the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assoc. know that they have unclaimed property on the Maryland dept of state treasury unclaimed property site.  Just search AOPA,   http://comptroller.marylandtaxes.com/Public_Services/Unclaimed_Property/Find_Your_Property/