I’m going to begin by letting you in on a fundamental principal about money based on experiences from my own life. When I was a 5-year-old Kindergartner, I walked to school every day (something unheard of these days). On my way to school, I always passed three things: a newspaper machine, a pay phone and the school playground. Seems pretty typical, doesn’t it? I’ll bet most of you can likely picture similar scenes from your memories of walking to school. (As a kid I took to heart the phrase “a penny saved is a penny earned.” I cannot recall any occasion where I threw my own money in a wishing well or flicked pennies at people across the room.) Anyway, every day on my way to and from school I checked each of the aforementioned spots I passed for money people may have dropped. I looked in the change return slot, I looked at the ground around the phone, and I spent 50 percent of my time during recess in search of a dropped quarter or neglected penny.

So what does this anecdote prove other than John was a pretty weird kid in Kindergarten? First, it teaches to never neglect “free” money. Let’s say I found 25 cents every day on my way to school. That was 1987. Without doing a more advanced calculation, let’s assume we’re dealing with a 6 percent rate of return. If I found 25 cents every day and put it in the bank I now would have an extra $3,234, and by the time I turned 55, it would be a little more than $29,000. Not too shabby for the few dimes, quarters and pennies found while I was just walking around.

Second, always be on the lookout for unique sources of income. As a kid, this meant searching vending machines for forgotten change. In college, it was being a resident advisor and sitting security 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. In the working world, I’m still searching for those unique sources but I guess they will be in the form of rental income and freelancing.

Finally, consider this interesting set of facts. Pennies minted 1962 until 1982 contained 95 percent copper. This amounts to approximately 2.89 grams of copper, and at $3.4772 per pound the copper in the penny is worth about $.0221. So if you found 2000 pre-1982 pennies, they would actually be worth $44.20. What a way to double your investment while holding cash -- not bad if you ask me.

I hope you now consider bending over to pick up that Lincoln from the sidewalk and take a second look at the ground near the pop machine. Who knows -- that penny could really be worth my two cents.