Frequent mover? You probably have unclaimed money

When the new American Pope moved to Rome he left behind unclaimed money in Illinois. It's not unusual for frequent movers.

January 01, 2026

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Unclaimed Money Guy newsletter

Where smart money doesn’t leave any money (lost or otherwise) on the table

Let’s start here…

💰️ Money Story: Frequent Mover?

Ok, talk about crazy. On a lark, I decided to check a bunch of notable names to see if, or all, of the names on my list any had lost money. I assumed I‘d come up with nothing. Wrong. Almost every notable name I typed in—Barack Obama, Taylor Swift, Arnold Schwarzenegger—had money waiting to be claimed. My favorite: The new American Pope, Leo XIV, formerly Robert Prevost, who used to live in Illinois. Now he doesn’t have a lot of money there waiting to be claimed (less than $100) and it’s hardly worth his time to go get it, but it’s there. Ditto for his brother, who also has a bunch of claims in Illinois. One point on commonality between all of them: they all tend to move around quite a bit, which probably partly explains why they have unclaimed money. Have you lived in a lot of places? It’s easy to lose track of things when your on the move. That said, it’s probably worth checking to see if you have unclaimed money.
Here’s a link that will get you started.

📣 My Take…

Notable people, including the Pope, are just as imperfect as the rest of us, meaning they lose track of stuff. Most are so well-to-do, that a little lost money doesn’t matter. But for the rest of us it can matter, especially when you consider that the average claim is $2,080 and many people have multiple claims. Consider: that money compounded over time at 4.5% APR can add up. Under any scenario, it probably makes sense to park any money you have, or might find going forward, in a high-yielding bank account.

Here’s a list of the best high-yields accounts to consider from our partner Bankrate.

🤔 The Big Takeaway…

Stay organized, or try to. In a perfect world, you’re so organized, that you have never have any unclaimed money. But that’s not the world we live in. Far from it. That said, many credit cards have built-in tools that can help you track your finances, plus offer cash back or airline miles as an extra incentive.
Some options
👇️ 
Best Cards for Cash Back
Best Cards for Airline Miles
Best Travel Credit Cards

🏦 This Week’s Personal Finance Hack: Certificate of Deposit (CD) Ladder
Locking money into staggered CDs can give higher guaranteed returns while still giving periodic access to cash. With rates up, this is an easy way to get risk-free 5%+ returns—better than many people’s investments.
Best Savings Accounts

📰 In the News…

ABC's Good Morning America has a regular unclaimed money feature called ”Show Me the Money” where people are reunited on TV with their lost funds.
Makes for great TV.
 Here’s a a link
The program (and others like it at the local level) make it seem like there’s a ton of money being handed out. Wrong. Only a fraction of the $100B that states are sitting on, perhaps 5%, actually get returned to people (The state likes to use the rest for all sorts of things: political campaigns, teacher pensions, etc.)

💵 Want to check to see if you have unclaimed money?

Click here to get access to all 50 state unclaimed money programs

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