Unclaimed Money

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes we find, or are given cash we didn’t know we had. Maybe you find five dollars in your jeans from last week. Maybe you get $20 on an instant lottery ticket. No matter the source, unexpected cash is always welcomed, and small amounts like this usually get tucked into your wallet and used for your normal everyday things.

What do you do though when you get a larger sum unexpectedly? Getting an unexpected larger sum is even less common, but it does happen. Perhaps you receive an inheritance you weren’t expecting, get a bonus from your place of employment, or a stock you own has suddenly doubled in worth. If you are an United States tax payer, a nice unexpected sum may be coming your way.

The plan is to put a tidy sum in your pocket in the form of a tax rebate. You are then supposed to go out and spend it to jump start the economy. Should you co-operate with this plan? Well, of course that is a personal decision, but in my opinion the answer is maybe.

I have a great aunt who occasionally will slip me a  handful of twenties, and say, “Go do something fun.” In those rare instances I do go spend the money on something that would not be in my normal budget plan. I obviously do not have the same relationship with the government as I do with my great aunt, and therefore do not feel as inclined to follow their wishes for how I use the money.

When a nice sum of unexpected money comes your way it should be used to meet the financial goals you already have. If you’ve been saving for a house down payment, then a tax rebate will be a nice jump start to that process. If you building an emergency, college, or retirement fund put your unexpected cash into that fund. Trying to pay off debt? Use the money toward that. If you’ve been planning to buy a large screen T.V., then you may be able to it sooner than planned.

Getting some extra cash should not be an excuse to blow through the money leaving you no better off than before you received the money.  Unexpected cash should be treated as a boost to the financial goals you already have established.

Thanks to Melissa whose post Recession Fears = Flat Screen TV?  was the inspiration for this post.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 8:05 am and is filed under money skills, personal finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.