Now that was your regular tip, but the most important tip that you have is your Christmas tip. That’s because it’s the custom at Christmas time for each tenant to tip each employee for the gratuities they perform throughout the year. We’re talking about doormen opening doors, concierge keeping track of deliveries, and handymen fixing toilets all year round.

The tip can range from anywhere between five dollars to two-hundred dollars, the average being about twenty-five bucks. What that means is, if you do the Christmas tip arithmetic for a three-hundred unit building with an average tip of twenty-five dollars, you’re talking about over seven-thousand dollars a year tax-free at Christmas time. So you can be sure as hell these old-school Hungarian and Puerto Rican immigrants kept track of every penny, and I’m gonna show you how they do it.