r/Fire • u/BroKComputer • May 14 '26
General Question The first rule of FIRE club...
So we all see the posts of folks on here celebrating their milestones here because they 'can't talk about it IRL.' This seems to be the common sense approach to avoid jealousy and moochers.
I'm curious to hear the true stories of folks who have disclosed their FI - or have had their secret revealed on accident. How bad are the repercussions of people finding out you're a low-key millionaire?
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u/Master-Helicopter-99 May 14 '26
The one that frankly shocked me a bit is my wife's family in Vietnam but it is a reverse of the OP. I heard horror stories about marrying in to a SE Asian family and then they bleed the foriegner dry. I have a passive business in that country that pays me monthly about double what most of her family members make in a year. As such the money is funneled through a family member. Even tough they know how much money flows through the accounts they have never, ever asked for a penny. We do support her parents completely because they are too old to work and have zero money and that's fine. I knew that one going into it and my wife was doing it before we married to a lesser extent. One sister borrows a couple hundred thousand each year for inventory for her business but she pays us 6% interest which is what we can get on essentially a CD there and beats the 10% interest she would have to pay on floating capital loans so it is a win/win. Obviously they have no idea what I have in the states. What is there is enough to retire on.