“Give as much as you would want to get yourself.”
Richard Lum, 35,
medical device
engineer,
San Jose, Calif.
“It depends on the person you’re giving it to: a family member, a close friend or someone in the office? In general, $20 would be very good.”
Sylvia Tse, 47,
accountant,
Oakland, Calif.
“More than your friends.”
Ray Fung, 36,
project manager,
San Bruno, Calif.
“This answer is highly dependent on the recipient, your financial situation and what you are trying to get out of the situation. Three dollars to $20 is standard; the days of $1 are way gone after Greenspan, Bernanke and Bush’s monetary policy has caused ridiculous levels of inflation. A male may tend to give more if his significant other is watching over his shoulder while he stuffs the envelopes.”
Miles Ito, 30,
sales and applications engineer,
Campbell, Calif.
“Twenty dollars to $100 dollars is good. Amounts with the number 8, such as $28 or $88, may bring extra good luck. That goes for using new bills, too.”
Tina Nguyen,
late 20s,
senior program manager,
San Francisco
“If you are single (like me): none to parents, uncles, aunts, cousins or friends; $20 to a niece or nephew under 12 years old; $40 to a niece or nephew from 13 to 17 years old. None to anyone above 18 years old — let them make their own money to give to others. If you are a parent or uncle or aunt, double those amounts. This is usually for young family members that are in town. If they are out of the area, then no red envelope for them. That’s my rule.”
Dino Tsai, 34,
shipping and receiving supervisor,
Milpitas, Calif.
“I would give $20. If I give someone $1, they will just put it in a drawer. But if I give someone $20, I’ll see a big smile on their face, and they can actually use it to buy something they want.”
Kay Chin, 60,
artist,
Honolulu
“It doesn’t matter what dollar amount. It’s the thought and tradition that matter.”
Carol Fong, 66,
retired
entrepreneur,
Sunnyvale, Calif.
“$1 is not too even, and $2 is way cheap, $4 in Chinese is ‘si,’ meaning a dead heap.
$6 is neither here nor there, and $7 is odd and therefore doom, but good ol’ $8, on the other hand, is a wish for a ‘fa cai’ money boom.”
San Ng, 37,
poet and filmmaker,
Oakland, Calif.
