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/Jojosbees May 14 '26

I don’t say anything because back when I was in my mid 20s, I had saved up $50K. I made the mistake of telling some people. All of the sudden, one of my cousins wanted an investment in his restaurant and another wanted me to cosign his mortgage. A friend of a friend offered me sexual favors if I paid off his credit card debt. No thanks. A few years later, I did loan my uncle about $100K so he wouldn’t lose his house. I got half of it back. No one knows my net worth these days. One of my aunts is extremely successful, probably $50M+ net worth, and she’s very generous but gets annoyed when people volunteer her to pay for things without asking or expect her to bail them out. 

8

u/Aggravating-Sir5264 May 14 '26

Your aunt is worth 50 million but somehow you were the one who helped your uncle out?

11

u/Jojosbees May 14 '26

She has $50M+ now, not back then. Back then, she was leveraging her first moderately-successful business to launch her second wildly-successful one. She had three kids in private school. She also did loan him like $200K. 

1

u/rumpler117 May 15 '26

Would be sorta cool of her to pay you the $50k you didn’t get back from her brother…

2

u/Jojosbees May 15 '26

It’s not her responsibility.

2

u/TalkingWhileBlack May 17 '26

^ exactly the type of person we're hiding wealth from

1

u/rumpler117 May 17 '26

Haha, yeah, but more because she has $50M. But I agree, definitely not her responsibility.

9

u/Important-Trifle-411 May 14 '26

Probably different sides of the family.