Dear readers, in today’s post, I will share my thoughts on how much HongBao monies one should give to relatives for the upcoming lunar new year 2020. Whenever it comes to discussing this topic, I will be rather relaxed for it is at this juncture that I would have completed most of the spring cleaning required. Yes, indeed I was hard at work for the previous two weeks, scrubbing and ridding the dirt and dust from the house. Okay, without further ado, let us go back to the subject: “How much Hongbao monies should you give?”
Just look at the long snaking queues in front of the banks everyday since two weeks ago and we could tell that the tradition of hongbaos giving is still very much practiced in Singapore. The fact that the lowest denomination of $2 is still high in demand suggest that many of us would consider to give hongbaos in multiples of $2 and it could be below $10 for each hongbao, that is $2, $4, $6 or $8. Or it could be also that multiples of $2 notes would be used along with multiples of $10 for each hongbao packets.
The economy seems to be showing some signs of slowing down. And I think for those who feel the pinch of the slowing economy, they could be scaling back the amounts of hongbaos per packet. But for others, regardless of how they are doing on the job front, they would think Chinese New Year is a festival of giving and hence they would not mind giving the same or even more hongbao monies every year.
As for myself, I believe that it is the thought that counts hence any amount one could give should be taken in gratitude by the recipient. It is for these reasons that I have scaled down my hongbao monies from $10 per packet to relatives in general from one particular year to $8 per packet in recent years. Beside I pride myself should my any of my relatives discover that I give them $8 on the having a good reason that $8 is an auspicious number.
As for the $2 “savings” per packets; these will as usual go toward the “war chest” that I am accumulating to take advantage of the stocks markets when opportunities arise.