In October 2023, the social survey center of the China Youth Daily reported a survey of 1,000 young people on suifenzi (随份子), the gift money given at weddings and other occasions. 93.2 percent said that giving it was a burden. 50.2 percent said people should dare to say no to high sums. 45.7 percent said closeness should no longer be measured by the size of the gift.
46.1 percent said the custom had gone sour and should be abolished. 33.6 percent said it was a blessing and should be kept.
In February 2024, The Paper reported on luxury car rentals before the Spring Festival. A Rolls-Royce Phantom rented for 8,000 yuan a day, with a minimum of seven days. On Ctrip, the Beijing holiday rate for the same model was 9,600 yuan a day. Ctrip reported that its Spring Festival car rental bookings had grown more than threefold over the year before.
A partner in a Beijing rental firm said that the early renters did it “only to prop up the front of the house” (撑门面). Now their reasons vary. Some rent sports cars to drive home for matchmaking dates.
After helping the King of Yue take revenge on Wu, Fan Li left by boat, changed his name and settled in Tao. He chose it because it lay at the center of the world, where the roads of all the states met and goods were traded.
The Records of the Grand Historian says: “In nineteen years he earned a thousand gold three times, and twice he gave it away to poor friends and distant kin. This is what is called being rich and delighting in virtue.” For this reason, “all who speak of wealth name Lord Zhu of Tao.”
In 2019 Somasundaram PR, the World Gold Council’s managing director for India, put the gold held by Indian households at “around 23,000-24,000 tonnes.” The figure came from a study made two years earlier. In 2025 Morgan Stanley estimated household gold at about 34,600 tonnes, worth 3.8 trillion dollars.
Hindus consider Dhanteras, Wikipedia notes, “an extremely auspicious day for making new purchases, especially of gold or silver articles and new utensils.”
In 2025 the chairman of the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council, Rajesh Rokde, said that “approximately 50 to 60 tonnes of jewellery were sold over the two days of Dhanteras.” The value was “nearly Rs 85,000 crore.”
Cash gifts at Indian family occasions, shagun, usually carry an extra rupee, as in 501 rupees instead of 500. The Quint explained in 2015 that “the additional rupee connotes continuity and the hope of future exchanges.”
It also marks a debt. “The lone rupee is a symbolic sign of debt to the receiver.” On future occasions, “the receiver is expected to attend and return the shagun.”
In Tamil Nadu, guests at a moi virundhu, a moi feast, give the host money. Those who give “will get back the money through ‘moi’ in return,” DT Next explained in 2019, when they hold a feast of their own.
A kitty party is an informal savings club, usually of women. The members meet regularly and each pays into a common pot. At each meeting one member takes the whole amount. “The kitty usually works with a set amount, say Rs 5000, and a fixed number of members,” the Free Press Journal explains.
The paper adds that kitties help women “to build a network of reliable individuals for emotional support and motivation.”
The Notgroschen, the emergency penny, is money put aside for purchases nobody planned. The consumer advice centers, the Verbraucherzentralen, explain it in a series for young people, Auf eigenen Füßen: Laura zieht aus, On Her Own Feet: Laura Moves Out. Laura comes of age, starts work and is responsible for everything herself for the first time. Then the washing machine suddenly breaks down, the fridge stops working, or the smartphone screen stays dark. For such cases, the advice is a buffer of two to three months’ salary. It is best kept in an overnight savings account, a Tagesgeldkonto. The money does not belong under the pillow or in the coffee tin. The centers call the amount a rule of thumb that depends on each person’s situation.
The Riester pension is private retirement saving with state subsidies. Its providers are required to guarantee 100 percent of the contributions paid in.
In the years of negative interest rates, the fund company DWS stopped selling new Riester contracts from 1 July 2021. A reform planned for 2027 keeps the full guarantee but adds a product with an 80 percent guarantee and a retirement depot without any guarantee.