People who prefer to hang onto their money are closefisted, especially if they aren't generous to others. You might also describe them as penny-pinching or call them tightwads. All of these terms provide clear images of hands clutching money tightly inside them — closefisted came first, around 1800, and tightwad followed about a hundred years later. The opposite of being closefisted, fittingly, is to be openhanded.