I got three calls yesterday telling me that a relative of mine had unclaimed money. Apparently in the newspaper there was a list of people who had money that they didn't know about. Let's look at the concept of unclaimed money from two angles.

#1 The company holding the money
#2 The person who is owed the money

#1 Companies often have very confusing policies that make it easy for you to misplace money. They don't really try to find you if you move. They frankly don't care if they are holding your money. Are they to blame? Not really. It is just part of doing business.

#2 People lose money every single day. Whether it falls into your couch, or you leave it in a pair of pants that you put in the laundry. What is really strange though is misplacing large sums of money. Especially with a company that sends you a statement. I think this a new phenomenon because people aren't as frugal as they use to be. People use to know where every dime went. Today, people have more accounts than they know what to do with.

Moral of the story: There isn't one. But I hope to never show up on a unclaimed money list. I would prefer to know where my money is.