I’ve just been talking to a journalist at the Sunday Herald in Scotland about the amount of ‘free money’ lying around in bank accounts, down sofas and in pensions and investments we’d forgotten about or never knew.

It’s just just old savings accounts we’ve forgotten about or premium bonds we lost. There are lots more pots of money we could have stashed away without realising or remembering, as we show in this article about getting free money!

No, there could even be insurance policies, shares and other investments that you inherited and you didn’t realise. Do go through all the links in our article and get in touch with those agencies. You never know!

Having said that, don’t bank on an inheritance! Apparently the majority of Brits ‘expect’ to receive inheritance from their parents – but in reality four in 10 won’t get a penny, according to new research from Skipton Building Society.

The findings showed that while 75 per cent of people aged 20 to 35 hope to get a nice little nest egg when their parents pass away, they look set to be very disappointed. In fact, the average person assumes they’ll get in the region of £78,000 when mum and dad pass on, so are in for quite a shock. A fifth of children over the age of 20 are hoping their parent’s wealth will sort out all of their money problems, and have completely shelved all financial plans for the future as a result.

Aargh!

As it happens, 49% of parents aged 50 and over have already had to dip into their savings to get by. And 4 in 10 have already been giving their children hand-outs to help them with college fees, driving lessons and rent payments.

So frankly I think it’s time people just assumed they are not going to get anything from the aged p’s and just got on with saving for themselves. If you do end up getting a bit of an inheritance then that’s just a bonus. Lovely!