5 real money lessons Singaporeans can learn from Chinese New Year myths & traditions

For some of us, Chinese New Year (CNY) myths may often be treated as mere superstition, something that we perhaps perform half-seriously or even ironically.

But the truth is: the persistence of these myths is not accidental. Beliefs and traditions are often shaped and evolve from past experiences or stories; and before modern day safety nets and financial planning, people built behavioural guardrails out of stories, taboos and food.

This article explores how common CNY myths around money can hold deeper symbolism that point towards practical financial habits.

Myth 1: Red envelopes (hongbaos) bring wealth

The belief

Giving hongbaos attracts prosperity and good fortune in the year ahead. The red colour wards off misfortune, while even amounts symbolise balance.

What the myth is really teaching

• Intergenerational support
• Planned giving
• Protecting family members with fewer resources

Hongbaos are presented as gifts, but they also serve as a household budget exercise.

Married people often count recipients of their hongbaos weeks in advance, including that cousin you only see once a year or the neighbour’s child you did not know had grown so tall.

Some also adjust how much they give to each recipient discreetly based on the recipient’s financial wellbeing and from year-to-year change the amount in the hongbaos based on their own financial status.

The meaning behind the choreography of hongbao giving is also significant. The red packet is handed with two hands. The receiver accepts with two hands. The gesture says: “I am thinking of your future”.

Finally, preparing hongbaos is also, quietly, a lesson in sustainable generosity. No one sensible gives so much that they compromise their own security. The myth sells it as luck. The behaviour reveals it as prudence.

The modern financial parallel

In Singapore, dependency is often layered. You may be planning for a child’s future while also contributing to parents’ current needs. You may be paying a mortgage while also trying to save. A household is not just a collection of individuals. It is a set of obligations.

• Map dependency in detail, not in sentiment.
  List who relies on you, how much they rely on you, and for how long. Include non-obvious dependants such as parents who can manage now but may need help later, or a partner whose lifestyle is built around your income.
• Translate responsibility into a protection number.
  Ask what it would cost to keep the household running if your income stopped tomorrow. Consider:
  • essential living expenses
  • rent or mortgage commitments
  • education plans and childcare
  • outstanding debts
  • a realistic transition period for a spouse or family member to adjust
• Review life and income protection insurance as your life changes.
  Coverage that was “fine” when you were 28 can be painfully inadequate at 38.
• Treat giving as part of the plan, not a separate moral category.
  If you support parents regularly or anticipate doing so, build it into cash flow planning. If you give generously at Chinese New Year, decide in advance what the total budget is and stick to it.

Why this myth endures

Because it celebrates responsibility without calling it responsibility.

Myth 2: Do not sweep the house on New Year’s Day

The belief

Sweeping on the first day of the year sweeps away wealth.

The emotional logic

This myth speaks to a fear that is both ancient and modern: the fear that you can lose stability through small, seemingly unrelated actions.

In earlier societies, loss was often incremental. Grain spoiled. Tools broke. Money was lent and not returned. A small problem, repeated, became a crisis. The taboo creates heightened awareness at precisely the moment when people want to feel hopeful. It says: be careful when you are happiest. That is when you become careless.

In Singapore, where so much of household wealth sits in a home, and where monthly commitments can be substantial, the same logic applies. Your financial life can be undermined less by dramatic catastrophe and more by administrative gaps and unexamined assumptions.

The modern financial parallel

Insurance is the formal version of not sweeping away wealth. It is the mechanism that stops one event from turning into a permanent setback. But insurance only works when it is maintained and aligned with reality.

Practical actions:

• Treat your annual protection review like spring cleaning, only less optional.
  Once a year, review:
  • what you own and what it would cost to replace
  • what you owe and what would happen if income stopped
  • what you are insured for and what the policy actually covers
• Check property and contents cover against replacement cost.
  Many people confuse market value with rebuild cost. They are not the same. Contents cover is also often underestimated because we forget how quickly “small things” add up: laptops, phones, jewellery, appliances, furniture, renovation finishes.
• Identify policy drift.
  The policy might still be active, but it may no longer match your life. Drift happens when:
  • you renovate and do not update cover
  • you buy expensive items and do not account for them
  • you change jobs and lose certain benefits
  • inflation quietly erodes the real value of sums insured
• Read exclusions like you would read a rental contract.
  Most unpleasant surprises happen in the fine print. If you never read it, you are effectively relying on luck, which is the very thing the myth warns against.

Why this myth endures

Because people understand, instinctively, that loss is often self-inflicted.

Myth 3: Lucky dishes create abundance

The Chinese New Year reunion dinner is the emotional centre of the season. It is also a symbolic language lesson that just happens to be edible.

In Singapore, where multicultural life means not every household observes the same rituals, the reunion dinner still holds a special weight for many Chinese families. It is one of the few nights where generations sit at the same table long enough for small dramas to unfold and be forgiven. The dishes arrive with stories. The stories arrive with instructions.

The table is optimism, but it is also an education in money.

Fish (鱼, yú): Nian nian you yu

Fish symbolises surplus through the phrase nian nian you yu (年年有余), meaning “may you have excess every year”. The fish is served whole, head and tail intact, suggesting completeness. Some families deliberately leave some fish uneaten, not because they dislike it, but because finishing it would contradict the message. There must be something left over.

What it teaches

Surplus is what turns survival into stability.

Practical actions:

• Build an emergency fund that reflects your real life, not an abstract rule. Three to six months is guidance, but the right number depends on job stability, dependants and debt.
• Use insurance to prevent surplus from being wiped out. Medical bills and income disruption are two common ways surplus disappears quickly.

Yu Sheng: the economics of coordination

Yu Sheng is a salad that behaves like a ritual. Everyone stands. Everyone reaches in. Ingredients are named, wishes are shouted, chopsticks lift and toss. In Singapore, it is often done in restaurants with theatrical enthusiasm, but it is also done in living rooms with the same energy, just less space.

The ritual is loud because it is communal. You cannot toss Yu Sheng alone.

What it teaches

Security is not purely individual. It depends on shared understanding.

Practical actions:

• Ensure the household shares a basic financial map: what the monthly commitments are, what the insurance coverage is, where the documents are.
• Avoid fragmented protection. If one person is covered and the other is not, the household is still exposed.

Abalone and Fa Cai: visible success, hidden vulnerability

Abalone carries the symbolism of prestige and abundance. Fa cai sounds like “getting rich”. Together, they represent the kind of success that is meant to be seen.

In Singapore, where visible markers of achievement can feel socially significant, this pairing is particularly apt. But it carries a warning too: the more you have, the more you can lose.

What it teaches

Status without protection is fragile.

Practical actions:

• Review coverage for high-impact events such as critical illness and disability, which can affect both medical costs and earning ability.
• Ensure liabilities are accounted for. A large home or car is not just an asset. It is also a commitment that must be sustained under stress.

Dumplings (饺子, jiǎozi): the logic of accumulation

Dumplings resemble ancient gold ingots. In some traditions, families make them together, folding and sealing, repeating the same gesture many times. The labour is part of the symbolism: wealth is built by repetition.

What it teaches

Accumulation is quiet, unglamorous, and powerful.

Practical actions:

• Prioritise steady savings and protection before lifestyle upgrades.
• Automate where possible, because accumulation is easier when it does not depend on motivation.

Pineapple tarts: prosperity arrives, but can it stay?

Pineapple, or ong lai in Hokkien, means “prosperity comes”. Pineapple tarts are, in Singapore, both a festive symbol and a fiercely competitive craft. There is always someone who insists their preferred brand is the only one worth eating.

The deeper message, however, is not about prosperity arriving. It is about being ready to receive it.

What it teaches

Progress needs protection, otherwise it becomes temporary.

Practical actions:

• Protect momentum with insurance that addresses long-term disruption. The real financial damage of illness is often not the hospital bill, but the months of reduced income and increased dependence.

Sweets, love letters and bak kwa(dried pork meat): the discipline of contained indulgence

These snacks signal sweetness and abundance. They are also served in small pieces. You snack. You pause. You come back later. There is pleasure, but it is portioned.

What it teaches

Indulgence is safest when it is contained.

Practical actions:

• Identify recurring expenses that are “small” but persistent. Subscription creep, high-interest debt, frequent convenience spending. These do not feel dangerous, but they erode resilience over time.

Why this myth endures

Because it makes the idea of surplus feel delicious, not moralising.

Myth 4: wearing red wards off misfortune

The belief

Red protects against bad luck. Black and white are avoided. In some circles, red underwear becomes a surprisingly popular purchase, discussed with a straight face and a half-laugh.

The emotional logic

At the threshold of a new year, people crave reassurance. Red is an emotional shortcut. It announces confidence. It signals belonging. It says: I am protected. Even if no one can prove it, the feeling matters.

This is not irrational. It is human. We all reach for symbols when uncertainty feels too large to hold directly.

What the myth is really teaching

• Feeling safe is not the same as being safe.
• Symbols can calm the nervous system. They cannot pay a hospital bill or replace income.

The modern financial parallel

In Singapore, many people assume they are protected because they have “something” in place: basic coverage, employer benefits, default schemes. The gap between feeling covered and being covered is where problems begin.

Practical actions:

• Understand what is default and what is optional.
  MediShield Life is foundational, but it has limits. Employer coverage can change when jobs change. Knowing the boundaries is part of being protected.
• Plan for the second-order costs.
  Even when medical bills are manageable, the financial shock often comes from:
  • time away from work
  • ongoing rehabilitation
  • caregiving needs
  • higher daily costs during recovery
• Make your protection legible to someone else.
  If a spouse or parent cannot locate your policies, understand them, and act on them, then protection exists only in theory.

Why this myth endures

Because it acknowledges a craving that many people do not admit out loud: the desire to feel protected.

Myth 5: avoid talking about illness, debt and death

The belief

Mentioning negative things invites misfortune, especially at the start of a new year.

The lived behaviour

This is the myth that does the most subtle damage, precisely because it feels polite. It is the social rule that keeps conversations light, keeps faces smiling, keeps the mood from turning heavy. You do not mention debt at a reunion dinner. You do not bring up mortality while everyone is wishing each other prosperity. You do not spoil the optimism.

So instead, people live on assumptions.

They assume their hospital coverage is adequate because they have heard of MediShield Life. They assume their employer benefits will be there if something happens. They assume their spouse knows where things are. They assume debts will be manageable. They assume, in other words, that the future will be kind.

In Singapore, where the cost of care can be substantial and where household finances are often tightly calibrated, these assumptions can be dangerous. Not because people are irresponsible, but because they are busy, uncomfortable, and often superstitious in the modern sense: they would rather not look directly at what they fear.

What the myth is really teaching

Avoidance is an emotional coping mechanism. It is not a risk strategy.

Historically, silence made a grim kind of sense. People had fewer tools. Talking about illness did not conjure insurance out of thin air. Talking about death did not create legal protections. But today, silence is not a necessity. It is a habit.

The modern financial parallel

The risks people avoid naming are precisely the ones that break financial plans.

A serious illness can create out-of-pocket costs, but more importantly, it can reduce earning power. An accident can shift a household from dual income to single income. Debt that felt manageable can become suffocating when cash flow tightens. Death is not just grief. It is paperwork, deadlines, and financial responsibility arriving all at once.

Practical actions:

• Hold one structured “risk conversation” each year.
  Not at the reunion dinner, and not in a moment of stress. Pick a calm time. Keep it practical. Cover:
  • major debts and repayment plans
  • key insurance coverage and gaps
  • emergency fund size and access
  • who would do what if something happened
• Write a simple household financial map.
  One page is enough. Where policies are stored. Who the beneficiaries are. Which bank accounts exist. What CPF nominations are in place. What the monthly commitments are. This is not morbid. It is considerate.
• Stress-test your finances, briefly but honestly.
  Ask: if income drops by 30 per cent for six months, what breaks first. If one person cannot work for a year, what happens. These are unpleasant questions, but they are clarifying ones.
• Treat clarity as an act of love.
  The point is not to imagine worst cases obsessively. The point is to ensure that if something happens, your family is not forced to guess.

Why this myth endures

Because optimism is socially rewarded, while preparation can look like pessimism. But in reality, preparation is how optimism becomes survivable.

Rethinking luck in Singapore

Singapore was not built on luck. It was built on buffers, planning and resilience. Chinese New Year myths, for all their colour, reflect the same instinct.

They assume adversity is part of life. They assume responsibility is shared. They assume preparation is ethical, not optional.

Insurance and financial planning are not modern intrusions into this culture. They are its continuation. A policy is simply a formalised buffer. A financial plan is a deliberate surplus. A review is a modern version of not sweeping away what you have built.

Those who appear financially lucky are often simply the ones who planned for the downside first.

A post-Chinese New Year financial checklist

As the decorations come down and the snacks finally disappear:

• Review life, health, income and home insurance, and check that sums insured still match reality
• Understand how MediShield Life integrates with any private cover, and where the gaps might be
• Update beneficiaries and dependant details, including any nominations that affect payouts
• Reassess emergency savings against current expenses and commitments
• Identify one unresolved financial risk and take one concrete step to address it this quarter
• Set one protection-focused goal for the year ahead, not just a growth goal

Chinese New Year is loud, generous and hopeful. But beneath the laughter and the red decor sits an important message: Wealth is fragile. Continuity matters. Carelessness costs.

Remember: the most reliable form of good fortune is not luck at all. It is preparation, practised patiently, reviewed regularly, and taken seriously long after the last pineapple tart has been eaten and the last hongbao packet has been tucked away in a drawer.