Find Your Missing Money

After reading this article about undeliverable rebate/refund checks I figured this would be a good opportunity to add another idea to the Buck List: finding your missing money. According to the IRS they are holding $1.2 billion for 1.3 million people who have not filed a 2004 tax return. That’s just for one year, from the IRS. There is also money from failed credit unions and banks, pension money, unclaimed property and paychecks, utility refunds, mortgage refunds, etc. It all adds up to a bunch of lost cash floating around out there.

I have been pretty careful with my finances over the years and have not left behind or forgotten any money owed to me. But I have to admit I checked each of the sites just to be sure. Careful attention to your money does not always guarantee you can keep track of everything, either. A sudden upheaval, a major lifestyle change, or a simple misplacement of documents could all lead to you missing out on some money owed to you. The following are two sites to try to locate some missing money that could belong to you.

USA.gov – I started this post with a list of links to put on it, but almost all of them are on this site. This is the most comprehensive site that I found.

Unclaimed Assets – This is the only one not included on the site above, and they charge (usually $18) to search for missing money. I included them for the map on their site that links to the individual state agencies.

Good luck!