Foo Bar and Grill

This weekend, a check from UC Berkeley showed up in my mailbox. This was odd; it is far from typical for the University, my alma mater and my employer for a few years in the early 1990s, to send me any sort of check - as opposed to vast amounts of junk-mail and phone calls asking for money.

But apparently I had a 403(b) account while I was there that I had completely forgotten about. According to the statement, it had started with $300 in it, and it had grown to $2000 (!) over the past twelve years. Maybe I should put all my investments there! After thinking about it, I vaguely recall that the university had put me into the 403(b) plan just before I quit - two years after starting work there and enrolling in the plan.

Anyway, the University was switching plans so my old one was being closed. I happily put the money into my rollover IRA, while writing a check to cover the tax withholding as the university had withheld some state and federal taxes. I did some quick research and discovered that if I didn't cover the taxes, I'd get socked with more taxes on the taxes and a 10% penalty. (Odd that the dreaded Regents of UC find yet another way to get me to cough up a check, but I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.)

Had this check not showed up, I would have never known this money existed. I wonder how many people have little piles of money sitting around the world that they don't know about?