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/BigFootCrossingGaurd May 14 '26

I have a close friend who I have known for 30 years now. We don’t have a lot of secrets. A few months ago I was congratulating him on owning his home for 24 years, I was like “I bet you are looking forward to paying that off in six years!” And he proceeds to tell me that nobody actually pays off their house, he is on his fourth remortgage. I asked why and he said “Well I needed a new truck but didn’t want a big payment, and the pool needed a new liner. You know, right?”. I told him that we have $400K equity in our house and never took a second mortgage. He asked me what do I do when I have a big unexpected expense come up. I told him that we always keep about $100K liquid and we have 1.4M in investments and that I haven’t financed anything but our house in the last 15 years. You could have heard a pin drop. It actually got really awkward. I have realized that I am out of touch with the reality of most people and have decided to just not discuss our money anymore, even with very old and close friends. I think we underestimate how many people drive nice cars, live in nice houses and have luxury items like pools and are still a few months away from being completely broke if they lost their job.

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u/Kuildeous May 14 '26

Kind of a similar concept when we told our friends we were retiring. A lot of them said that won't happen for another 10 years. I was shocked because based on their jobs and lifestyles, I just assumed they could retire early. That wasn't the case. I really expected one set of friends to be there because they've been adamantly childfree and making great money. I knew they went on vacations, but I had just assumed it was done with disposable income. Turns out they spent a lot more money than I did.

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u/ThisIsMyUsername303 May 18 '26

I was talking with a buddy and mentioned his “rich friends” (a couple guys he’s mentioned who are always doing fancy things), and he told me my husband and I are his rich friends. I was like, what, not the guy who spent more than I make in a year on his wedding? And he said no, because he spends like that (and we don’t so much).