10 Signs That Someone is Fake Rich

Most finance videos talk about what rich people do, but today I'm going to do the opposite. 10 things that scream you're pretending to be rich. Real wealth is about what you build and not what you show off. Now, chances are you've probably come across someone who is guilty of these, and it's important to identify these patterns so that you don't derail your financial life. All right, let's get started with number one. One of the biggest signs that someone's just pretending to be rich is that they will buy the entry level designer good or an entry level luxury car and they'll keep it as the base model. Usually someone who wants to appear rich wants the flashy item, but doesn't have the budget quite yet. So what they're going to do is they're going to stretch their budget and they will go for the cheapest and flashiest designer good possible. Usually that can be something like a logo belt in my experience, and they'll show off that way because to them, the designer good is associated with status. Brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci will sell you on the idea that their goods are made of higher quality, superior materials and years of craftsmanship, when in reality, they're probably just marked up anywhere from 100 to 1000 percent. Another example that comes to mind is buying the cheapest model luxury car like a BMW, Mercedes or Audi. Some people definitely want to buy a luxury car for the driving experience, the quality interior and the fact that they, you know, look stylish. And if a high end car just does it for you and if you can genuinely afford it without stretching your finances, then more power to you. But if you're somebody who's just buying the base model BMW, Mercedes or Audi to be associated with the brand and you're financing it, then you might be doing it for the wrong reasons. Oftentimes you can get a fully loaded Honda or Toyota that's going to be much more comfortable than the base model Audi or bare bones Mercedes for a very similar price. But someone who's pretending to be rich might say to themselves, well, why would I want a Toyota? It doesn't matter if it's fully loaded or not. I can have an Audi for three thousand dollars more. And that, I think, is where the real damage happens. The person pretending to be rich might spend 20 to 30 percent of their income trying to look wealthy, while someone with actual wealth might spend two to five percent or less on these kinds of purchases. Plus, these purchases will also come with higher ongoing costs like insurance, maintenance, premium gas, all of which will stop you from building real wealth. What I've noticed is that truly wealthy people often buy the flashier items after they've been financially successful and established, not as their first big purchase. But when someone's pretending they will buy the status symbol first and hope that the wealth follows after, but it rarely does. Now, the second point in today's video is someone you might know, but it's that person who constantly talks about money in every capacity. People that are really secure with their financial situation or their wealth don't need to constantly remind everyone how well they're doing, how much they're making or how much their portfolio grew by. But what I've noticed is that the people who pretend to be rich is that they'll always steer the conversation back to a money related topic. They'll find any opening to mention their income, their investments or how much they spent on something because they need that external validation. And by the way, this is all unprompted. You could literally be talking about the best pizza toppings, which are black olives, by the way, and your coworker might just come up to you and say, oh, yeah, I used to eat those when I wasn't making that much money. And now I'm not eating black olives anymore or something similar to that. Another example I've seen a lot online is people confusing their revenue with their actual net profit or how much they make. So this would actually happen a lot in some of the dropshipping industries that I would come across. A lot of dropshippers I would come across would say something like, yeah, I made five hundred thousand dollars this year or, yeah, I made a million bucks this year. But they were talking about their revenue and not what their actual profit was. Oftentimes, their actual profit was less than 10 percent of that revenue number. So they're bragging about making five hundred K when they're actually netting 50 K, which is still a decent amount of money. But it's not the same flex. Another telltale sign is when people talk about the money they're about to make or deals that they are actually about to close rather than the actual results. You might have heard someone say, like, I've got a huge deal coming or once this investment pays off, I'll be able to do X, Y, Z. It's always in future tense because the present reality doesn't match the image that they're trying to project. I always like to say to people that the money isn't actually real until it hits your bank account, especially if you're working on a big deal. So if you are working on a big opportunity that you have coming, I would just not share it unprompted because it's just going to be a little bit embarrassing if it ever falls through. The truly wealthy tend to be very private and don't want to talk about their finances, especially because they don't need to prove anything to anyone. The third item that screams I'm pretending to be rich is when you have a bag that costs more than what's in your bank account. This is a scary place to be. Imagine walking around with a $5,000 Gucci bag, but you only have $2,000 in your savings account. I don't think that's the same flex as you might think it is. I personally see this all the time. Someone's carrying a designer handbag that costs more than their emergency fund or someone wants to buy a luxury item like a Cartier watch, but they are going into it with a hefty credit card balance. That's not really wealth building at this point. I think it's just another way of showing off. And I think there's a massive difference here. So remember, guys, the phrase is if you can't afford it twice, don't buy it. And if the designer good or bag represents two to three months of your income, you aren't rich, you're just living wildly above your means. A good rule of thumb to make sure it fits your budget is to use the 50-30-20 rule. That's where no more than 30% of your budget should be allocated to discretionary spending, including luxury items. But even if you're making 10K a month, for example, 30% of your entire spending for the month is $3,000. So buying one fancy designer item could be that entire budget. Some people, though, they pretend to be rich, not with items, but instead with their attitudes. Which brings us to my fourth point, the constant one upper. A one upper is someone who constantly tries to one up another person by making their own experiences seem better, more extreme or more impressive, often to gain an advantage or feel superior. So, for example, you might have acquired a new watch and you're super proud of it. And they might say something like, well, that's a great watch, but it doesn't have quite the same mechanical movement as my Rolex Submariner. I just love the way mine sounds when the seconds hands tick. And you might think I'm joking, but this has actually happened to me. Now, in most cases, maybe it's not as direct as that, but there are certain people that will try to bring the conversations back around to themselves after they've noticed that you've done something really great. Every conversation just becomes a competition to them and they always have to win. And essentially, I think it all stems from a little bit of insecurity or some sort of misguided attempt to relate to others by just shifting the focus onto themselves. You'll know you're around a constant one upper whenever you share some news and they'll make you feel bad about it. So maybe you get a promotion. They'll make you feel bad about it because they've just gotten a bigger one. Or you just share that you went on a nice vacation and they'll mention their time last summer in the south of France. And they just have to tell you that they took a business class flight to get over there. People with real wealth won't actually need to win every conversation and they'll be generally happy for your success without making it about themselves. But people pretending to be rich will be threatened by any successes that other people have. So I think that's something to look out for. Number five is a characteristic of your classic one upper. And it's actually a little bit different, but it's going to be showing off on social media. If somebody's money is actually real, they don't need to constantly document it for strangers on the Internet. But the people who are pretending to be rich, it's only real if other people see it on their phones and it validates them. So I think this is always a good reminder here. Social media isn't real. Sometimes what you see on other people's posts is just a highlight of their lives. And sometimes it can be really contrived. No one's going to hop on social media and show you the day to day boringness of their life. No one's going to be like, hey, guys, get ready with me to do the dishes. I think it's a sad fact that certain types of content will just get more views in general. So, for example, if you went to spend a thousand dollars at the mall, like come to the mall with me and spend a thousand dollars to get the rare one of one Lebubu, it might actually get more views, which is the sad part about social media. But if I make a post about how I'm going to save a thousand dollars into my bank account or I'm buffing up my emergency fund, it's just not going to get as many views as the person who's shopping with a thousand dollar budget. It's just not as glitzy or glamorous. I'm sure you're financially minded. You might actually prefer the latter type of content. However, I'm saying as a whole, a lot of people like to show off the best parts of their life and not the boring discipline stuff. The other thing I've seen on social media in terms of showing off is in the way of fake followers and fake likes. I've seen some profiles on the Internet where clearly they want to embody some sort of life. Perhaps they have all the material possessions in the world. But now it's about signaling social status. I see profiles with millions of followers and hundreds of thousands of likes on every post. But then if you actually click into the comments, you realize it's all fake engagement and all the comments are bots saying the same thing over and over. So that's something to be aware of, but let's actually switch gears literally and talk about cars again because the next one is a classic, number six, and that's leasing a luxury car. This is a financial habit that people use to make them look upper class. And it's especially common if you already make a decent income because you think, okay, well, I can grab the new luxury car lease because I can afford the payment, no problem. But when you lease a car, the dealership is winning a lot financially because when you lease, you're essentially paying the vehicle's depreciation off during your lease plus interest, which is called the money factor. So here's how it works. The dealer estimates what the car will be worth at the end of the lease. That's your residual value. And you will pay the difference between the purchase price and that residual value over the course of your loan plus interest, taxes, and fees. So if a car costs 50K and will be worth $30,000 after three years, you're essentially financing the $20,000 worth of depreciation plus interest. In that way, you're paying for the most expensive years of the car's life, the steepest part of the depreciation curve, and then giving back the car at the end of the day. Then at that point, you will usually get sucked into another lease and you have to pay all those fees, interest, and the depreciation off again on a new car. Leasing is one of the most expensive ways to actually own a vehicle. Now, if you do want a luxury vehicle, you can always buy a used one in cash or even finance a used one that's probably a better financial option. I'm not saying 100% of leases are bad decisions. If you're using them for legitimate business purposes with tax write-offs, or you genuinely need a new car every few years for your work, it might make sense. But as a general wealth building strategy, leasing is one of the most expensive ways to buy a car. And if you're just leasing a luxury car because the payment fits your budget, I think that's a huge red flag. Another red flag that we should talk about today are counterfeit and luxury goods. That brings me to point number seven. This is gonna be a really short point here, but if you are spending money on a counterfeit or fake designer bag, I think that's even worse than overspending on a real one. People who actually know the luxury goods will be able to spot the fakes from across the room. The stitching might be off, the leather quality is wrong, the logo placement is slightly different. So all you're really doing is carrying a knockoff Louis Vuitton bag to pretend to be something that you're actually not. This is literally the definition of what this video is about. It screams, I'm pretending to be rich. You're not just spending to buy status, you're buying a fake version of status. Now, some people might say, I just like the design, I'm not trying to fool anyone. And look, if that's really the case, I can't judge you too harshly. But even then you have to ask yourself, why did you pick that specific brand? If you truly like the design and aren't chasing the logo, wouldn't you rather buy something original and well-made from a brand that's actually within your budget? Because most counterfeits aren't just fake, they're also poor quality. So you are neither getting the status nor the craftsmanship. Okay, guys, another dead giveaway someone is pretending to be rich is if they're constantly talking about their latest opportunity to get rich slightly fast. I say slightly fast because a get rich quick scheme is something that's clearly a scam. Like take my trading course and you'll make $100,000 a month. That's clearly improbable. But then there are these get rich slightly faster than normal schemes, whether that's Forex trading, dropshipping, NFTs, crypto day trading, multi-level marketing, options trading, infinite banking. It's all some sort of topic that's going to change your life drastically, but that's when alarm bells should be going off in your head. While a very small fraction of people actually are successful doing the aforementioned activities, most people, 99% of people will fail and lose money. Again, this could be another example where people are counting their chickens before they hatch and they're operating in the future tents. Real wealth is built slowly and very boringly and it might take multiple years or decades and rarely will it come from someone turning 5K into a million dollars in one single year. So if you come across someone who is trying to sell you on a get rich slightly fast scheme now you know what to look for. And that's not the only thing you should look for in terms of a character trait or an attitude because that actually moves us to point number nine, someone who is condescending. If somebody has a condescending attitude about money towards you, this is a little bit different than the one upper because the condescending type of person is just going to criticize every financial move that you make. It's that person at the water cooler who might make an unsolicited comment about what you're doing with your money and how it's all wrong and how you should be doing X, Y, Z to be successful. An example of this would be them saying, oh, wow, you're making six figures a year now. You should definitely have upgraded your apartment a long time ago. I upgraded my apartment when I was making half of what you were making. But here's the thing, these specific choices might not be good for them at all. They might just be trying to rationalize their decision by making you make the same mistake as well. Your financial situation is going to be so different from the person next to you. So if someone is being condescending or criticizing of what you're doing with your money, I would stay far, far away from them. These people can't acknowledge that you are killing it at your own finances because doing so would require them admitting that their whole approach was backwards. So I encourage you to think for yourself when it comes to your own personal finances, use the lessons that you've learned from this channel and you will be a lot better off. The next and last method today in which you can tell someone is pretending to be rich is that they're just overdoing it. They're overdoing it with their accessories, overdoing it with how they talk, how they treat people, and even maybe what cologne they wear. They might see something out of the movies and they say, okay, well, that person's successful. I want to look like that character in that movie. Or they see another rich, arrogant person acting a certain way and they think, oh, well, I identify as rich. I should act that way as well. You should know by now that real wealth whispers. It won't scream at you. So when every single item that someone owns is designed to broadcast a brand name or they smell like they just came from the department store perfume section, they're really not demonstrating wealth here. They're just demonstrating insecurity. The wealthiest people I know often dress pretty normally and super modestly. They might have one or two really nice items, but they're not walking billboards for luxury brands because they don't need to be. Wealth isn't about showing off. It's having the confidence to live without the pressures of having to do certain things to impress other people. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And as always, if you're interested in the 10 things I personally stopped buying, make sure to check out this video right here because if you liked this video, I think you will really enjoy this one as well. I'll see you in a future video on the channel or perhaps that one. All right, peace.