How to find money: Ten tips from a money magnet

This is a true story.

It was cold in Holland and I wanted my blanket. It wasn’t just any blanket — it was a soft gray blanket made of wool, one that promised to keep me warm through the winter — and actually it wasn’t mine. That November day, when I saw the beautiful blanket, and then saw the price tag for 65 euros, my heart sank. A major assignment had been postponed; now it appeared that I wouldn’t be able to afford that blanket until June.

I slunk back to my apartment and delved into research for a book I was writing, trying not to think of that blanket. But I couldn’t stop. Hours later, my obsession drove me to walk to the home furnishings store, by then closed, so I could peer at that gorgeous blanket through the window. With every step, I tried to convince myself that somehow I’d figure out how to make my dream of owning it come true.

“Something good will happen,” I chanted to myself, whipping around a corner onto a narrow cobblestone street. The night was inky black and it had started to rain; not a soul besides me was out that night in the tiny Dutch village that I had just moved to. “Something really good will happen,” I kept chanting to myself like an idiot. “And I will be so warm this winter with that wonderful blanket.”

Five steps later, it happened — one of those little miracles that make you want to dance a jig, even if you’re not Irish. As I approached the store, mere inches from the door, my spirits soared. On the sidewalk, flapping at me like a long lost friend, I found a small bundle of cash. Counting it, I was dumbfounded: it was precisely 65 euros.

“Thank you money gods yet again!” I yelled to the heavens. The next morning I bought my blanket.

It was at least the fiftieth time that the powers-that-be in charge of the lost money department have bailed me out in times of need. And while money isn’t everything, finding it when you need it is a blessing and a potent illustration that we can manifest our desires.

I am a money magnet, The Queen of the Found Green (or blue or beige, as the currency may be). In the past two decades, I’ve stumbled upon wads, stacks, and envelopes of hard, cold, ID-less cash — in hallways, on escalators, in back alleys and on well-traveled sidewalks. My total find to date is well into the thousands of dollars.

It’s not that I’m any luckier than anyone else, or that I telekinetically will bills out of other people’s pockets and into my hands.

The simple reason I’ve enriched my life and wallet thusly is that I know the secret of how to find money. And in order to find more, I’m passing on my tips to you.

Tip One: Be curious

Foremost on the list of practicalities is the money finder’s motto: Look down! Oh sure, people may think you suffer from low self-esteem, but I’ve found bundles of money that were being literally stepped over by people who held their heads high, as they walked by tsk-tsking my low self-regard and bad posture. And curiosity is the key. If you see an envelope or bag, look into it.

When my friend Shad peaked into a garbage bag on a San Francisco street, he found the the $3000 that funded a move to Oregon. When Robert looked into a sack left in the back of a cab, he found $5000. When I saw a manila envelope in the middle of a street — despite my friend Sara’s loud chastisements not to do so — I picked it up.

Inside was a sheet of stamps, which Sara insisted I split with her.

Tip Two: Believe

Perhaps the most important requirement for finding cash is sincerely believing that finding money can happen. I’ve noticed that most of the people who come upon lost bills are often the fanciful sort who say “Anything is possible!”

Conversely, those people with a confined and restricted view of the world — the sort who are quick to point out “You’ll never this…” or “It’s impossible that…” usually never find so much as an unchewed stick of gum.

I’d always thought the most money you could find on the street was probably a thin Canadian dime until my friend, Andrea, found a $100 bill fluttering in a parking lot. Shortly thereafter, I began finding rolls of dough — one time $85, another $170, another time over $200, with plenty of fives, tens, twenties, fifties, and hundreds scattered about in between.

Tip Three: Ask for it

Most of the money finders I know admit that before finding their finds, they had requested financial assistance from the universe.

In the era before the euro, Joy, a traveler in Amsterdam, saw a dress that cost 200 guilder while on her way to the station to catch a train to France. “If I only had 200 guilder, I’d buy it,” she mused. And while waiting for a bus to the train station, two 100 guilder notes literally floated through the air. She missed her train, and bought the dress.

My sister, a tour guide, once spent two weeks giving particular attention to a most demanding traveler, only to find at the end of the tour the woman departed without so much as a thanks or a tip. “I should have gotten 50 deutschmark from her,” my sister lamented to a friend. Within the hour, 50 deutschmark blew down the street and landed at my sister’s feet.

I’ve found that the occasional hissy fit can work wonders.

When I’d spent my rent money on putting together a proposal for a public service project — that fell through — I lost it. For two hours I wailed about how I was trying to help the world, and not only was my proposal rejected, I was a financial reject as well.

“Can’t I at least pay my rent? Is that too much to ask?” I bellowed to the heavens. Upon leaving my house to withdraw my last five dollars from the bank, I found almost exactly the amount needed for my share of the rent— $187. It was a pile merely sitting there on a bench outside the bank, without a potential owner in sight.

My housemates Shawn and Faustine were amazed when I showed them the roll of money that had magically entered my life.

“Well if you can find money it, I can find it too!” Faustine said.

Five days later, Shawn and Faustine ran into the house.

“Look what Faustine just found in a phone booth!” Shawn yelled.

Faustine waved a black coin purse, that contained no ID, and she pulled out a roll of twenties totaling $240.

Tip Four: Go with your gut

My friend Clayton knew that there was no way he could afford the house he’d just seen with a “for sale” sign out front — a sea captain’s house that sat over a cliff in misty Astoria, Oregon. To distract himself from the thought of the rambling house, he went out shopping at second-hand stores, and saw a frame that caught his eye. He picked it up, admired it, thought the price was too high, and put it back.

Two blocks away, the thought of the frame began haunting him as much as the thought of the house. He walked back to the store and bought the frame, despite the less than compelling dog photo within it.

It was when he got home, and took out the dog picture that he found enough money — though he would never fully disclose the amount — to buy the sea captain’s home.

While spending a night in a hotel in Paris, I became obsessed with the need for an envelope. Although the lodging was not the sort to provide complimentary stationary, I knew there was an envelope somewhere in that room, and began pulling out drawers searching for one. Simply because it proved my intuition was correct, I was elated that when I indeed found an envelope behind the drawer of the nightstand — more so, when I opened it to find 200 British pounds inside.

Tip Five: Pay your dues

Despite these examples, there is no such thing as a free find. A would-be finder must lose some money first; I tend to lose my last dollar. When you discover that money has accidentally fluttered out of your hands and into that of another, regard it as a donation to the money finders’ union. Happily, money finders usually find many multiples of the amount they lost. I’m currently working at about a 50-to-1 find-to-lose ratio.

Tip Six: Honesty pays

Money finders are usually honest sorts. Not only are they the tell-the-truth breed, they also regularly find purses, wallets, even passports — and have return them, complete with all their contents. Money attached to ID is a karmic test. Turn it in, with the hope that you’ll soon be rewarded — not necessarily by the loser, but by the universe.

The one person I know who kept a wallet never found another dollar again, and has been plagued by bad financial luck ever since.

Do-gooders of other varieties may benefit as well. When Joe, a guy I met on a French train, picked up his cigarette butt from a pristine Munich sidewalk, he noticed a slightly open paper sack atop the trash can. Inside: the euro equivalent of about $500.

Tip Seven: Give your thanks

Upon coming upon ID-less cash, wish good things upon whoever it was who lost your find.

Tip Eight: Await a repeat performance

The strange thing about finding money is that once it happens to you, it usually happens again. I’ve even found money at the same corner — Broadway near 85th in Manhattan — leading me to believe someone was tossing it from their window. And I found money three times with the same person, David P., who is apparently my good luck charm.

Tip Nine: Pass it on

Since money tends to be found when it’s already been earmarked for something, I think it’s best spent on whatever it was wished for — whether that’s rent or a vacation. However, most money finders are generous people, who when they are solvent, are quick to help out someone who isn’t.

And, while some people regard it as bragging, I think it’s helpful to tell people about finding money. The point isn’t to show how lucky you are but to let them know that if you can find money, they surely can, too.

Tip Ten: Expand beyond the material

A random bill blowing into your world is a lovely way to see the magic of life. I believe that is the true purpose of finding money: to remind us that life on this planet is an unpredictable, alchemical process that our wishes can shape. The improbable and the magical are, in fact, possible — to those who believe that it is, and especially to those who look down.