7 Signs Someone is Fake Rich

7 signs someone is fake rich. See, most people think wealth is about income, but it's not. I've worked with high earners who were literally one missed paycheck away from panic and others who made far less, yet they had a complete financial calm about them. And the difference wasn't intelligence and it wasn't hustle. It was simply behavior. And as a CPA and a money mentor for over 30 years, I have seen the fake rich patterns repeat again and again. And the patterns that actually look successful are quietly destroying freedom if you're not careful. So in this episode, I'll break down the real signs that someone is fake rich, why those habits are so costly, and what actually builds durable wealth and a rich life of freedom. This is Building Your Money Machine, where we help you master your money, eliminate financial stress so you can live a life of choice, because earning more doesn't make you free, but a money machine does. All right, let's do this. The 7 Signs Someone's Fake Rich. Now, this one's an interesting one because the reality is a lot of people will do content, including myself, about the signs that you are rich. But I want to talk about the ones that really demonstrate where we're going down the wrong pathway, the wrong alleyway, the wrong road, if you will, because I've spent decades as a CPA, as an entrepreneur, as a money mentor, someone who has been in advisory conversations at kitchen tables or boardrooms or planning sessions. And I've watched how people who truly have richness in their life behave and how those who are faking it behave. And one of the most surprising things I've learned is this: the people who look wealthy on the outside and the people who are living rich lives often behave Completely opposite. Okay. In fact, some of the most financially fragile people I have ever worked with look wildly successful from the outside. And some of the, the richest people I know, you'd never even notice them. In fact, I live in a town where there is a fair amount of wealth, and we say that they're, they're billionaires in board shorts because you wouldn't know. Now, this episode isn't about judging anyone. See, most fake rich behavior is learned behavior. It's cultural. And honestly, it's rewarding, but it's also dangerous. And so, if you don't know the difference between looking successful and being truly rich and free, well, you can build a life that looks incredible from the outside or on Instagram and still feel financially trapped. And one of the signs we're going to I'm going to talk about today is so normalized that most people don't even realize it's quietly stealing their freedom. So let's walk through the signs here and let's start to understand it. But more importantly, how do you make sure that you don't accidentally build a life that looks impressive but feels expensive? Because I did that early on until I realized it. So let's start with sign number 1. Sign number 1, their money is loud, but their life is financially fragile. This is about looking successful versus being aligned. And this is one of the biggest giveaways, I think, of the fake rich is when someone optimizes for how it looks on the outside instead of being aligned with their values, what they want on the inside. It's one of the reasons that in The Money Machine Blueprint or in my book, one of the first things we do is is we ask the questions, well, what do you want your life to look like? What do you want it to feel like? Not what do you want your bank account to look like? We want to use the values, the vision for our life to start to drive that. And so, we can be aligned because the problem is that when we don't get it right, you have loud money. You visibly upgrade things because of status, because of what it looks like. You look very impressive from the outside because you see the labels, you see the cars, you see all the trappings, and you see them parading it on Instagram. But under the surface, they're in debt. There's thin margins. They have high, high fixed costs. They have so much pressure to try and hold it all together. And I've seen this more times than I can count, but someone walks in and they look incredibly successful. They got that nice car, they got that nice house, they have a great income, but they're living to the edges of their check. And then when we sit down and actually look at the numbers, it's like one expected event, a health issue, a business slowdown, a market hiccup. Suddenly it exposes how fragile the whole thing really is. That fake rich, they build a stage set. It's a facade. But truly, truly wealthy, rich people, they build load-bearing walls, just like when you're building a building. Okay? From the outside, those two will look identical until life applies pressure. And when that pressure is applied, what it reveals is the underlying structure of it. And this is one of the reasons that in the Wealth Parlor, we're saying, let's build an unshakable foundation first, and then let's worry about growth. Because too often it's on a bed of sand. Okay? The cost here is simple. When your lifestyle requires everything to go right all the time, the planets have to line up, you're not free. You're tense, you're stressed. And the shift is uncomfortable but powerful. Build alignment and margin before you upgrade the optics to the outside. And I'm gonna give you a reflection here, something to ask yourself in each of these signs. And the reflection So this one I think is, does your money— ask yourself, does my money reflect what actually matters to me? Or is it reflecting what other people think about me? See, when we put it external, that's when we have the problem. When we put it internal, what other people think doesn't matter. All right, that leads me to sign number 2. They get emotional, even defensive or avoidant. When money starts to get real. This is where I see people avoiding trade-off conversations. What I mean by this is, is this, because trade-offs feel like failure. If I gotta give up something, then it feels like failure. Saying no, maybe it feels like you're falling behind. Okay. But instead of choosing intentionally, the conversation gets avoided altogether. And that's where I think that when we get alignment in that first sign, then you're, you're simply making decisions in alignment with your values, your vision, and doing it that way. And you can literally see this happening instantly. Okay? You ask a simple question like this: what do you spend in a month? Or how much runway do you have? And the energy starts to change. I mean, that, that question, and I ask this to, to all my new clients, I ask it to the, the students that I work with when we start to talk about what do you spend in a month? How much runway do you have? And you'll see it. In their face. Okay? You'll see the jokes, you'll see the deflection, you'll see all kinds of things. You'll hear the thing, oh, well, it depends. Well, that reaction tells me more than the number ever could. See, calm around money, it's not a personality trait. It's a position. People with margin, they don't get defensive. People under pressure do. Avoiding trade-offs doesn't eliminate cost. It just hides it until it's bigger and that you can't get away from it. If this feels uncomfortable right now, if you're starting to look at and say, maybe I'm avoiding trade-offs, that's not a bad sign. That usually means that we're touching something that's, that's real. The shift here is, is learning to say, if I choose this, am I consciously choosing not to choose that? Consciously is the key word here. I want you to simply be aware, intentional, and conscious. I don't care what people spend. I just care that they understand the consequences and is it in alignment with what they want, what they're trying to build? Think about this. And I talked about this story in my book about the kid who does my hair, cuts my hair. He's a 23-year-old kid and he's got a friend of his that one day I walk in and he says, you know, I got a buddy who just spent $5,000 on a watch. Now, I love watches, but I said, $5,000 on a watch, does he make a lot of money? He says, no, he's like 22 years old. And he's like me. And I go, all right, so why would he spend $5,000 on a watch? And he said, because his friends thought it was cool. I said, interesting. Let me run some math for you. I said, $5,000 at 20 years old, if you invested in an S&P 500 fund, would go up around 80 times, call it. Okay, that means he bought a $5,000 watch to impress a bunch of dudes that probably aren't going to be in his life in the next couple of years, who knows. But if he took that same $5,000 and invested and allowed it to grow, it would go up 80 times. That's $400,000. I don't care that he did it, but I care that he didn't understand the consequences of doing it. And if he loves watches, great. Just do it consciously knowing that he gave up $400,000 down the line. Now, the other challenge with that is, I didn't ask this question, is if he did it on debt, it makes it even worse. Okay? But my point is, is this, it's about being conscious, aware, and intentional with what you do to make it aligned with your values. So the reflection on this one is this: what am I saying no to by saying yes to this? Realizing that there is a trade-off or asking yourself, what is this costing me in time, stress, or freedom down the road? That leads me to sign number 3. Lifestyle creep is driven by status and not by intentional choice. See, this is a difference between comfort and fulfillment. And I want to, I want to be, be, be clear before I even say this. This is not about never spending money, like I said, and it's certainly not about deprivation or living on beans and rice, but it's about why you're spending. See, fake rich, they often confuse comfort with fulfillment. The raises turn into upgrades. Their increases, their bonuses, they turn them into upgrades. But then stress turns into spending. Discomfort gets treated with purchases. Okay? And it feels like you're making progress. I know this because I did this in the past, but it's not fulfillment. It's fleeting. It gives you maybe temporary relief, but that relief goes away. Here's the line I want you to remember: money, it's a terrible therapist. Okay, so retail therapy only works for so long, and if you use it to avoid discomfort, it will quietly steal your future freedom. Okay, comfort can be smart. It'll allow you to sleep. It'll give you good health, ease. Those matter. Okay. But when spending becomes this emotional anesthesia, it's a warning sign. And the deeper issue is using money to avoid clarity instead of using it to build alignment. See, fulfillment comes through from alignment, not just the spending of it, not just the parading of it. And the shift is learning to tolerate that short-term discomfort, the discipline in exchange for the long-term freedom. So your reflection here is this, is to ask yourself the question, am I buying something that actually makes my life better or just quieter for a moment? All right. Now, before we go any further, there's, there's a moment where a lot of people realize something important. Most of the stress around money doesn't come from not making enough. It comes from not knowing what enough actually looks like. Now, if you want help getting clarity on that, that's why I put together the lifestyle cost calculator that helps you define what a rich life actually costs you. Okay? Not what social media says it should cost, not that parade or anything. You're gonna put some numbers in. It's totally free. You can grab it at melabraham.com/lifestyle. We'll hook it up for, for you here. Just get yourself clarity so you know the direction you're going. All right. Leads me to sign number 4. They confuse income with wealth. This is a big one that I'm always talking about because more versus enough is one of the questions we have to answer. Do I just want more or have I got enough? Now, I'm not saying to just settle. I'm saying to understand where your contentment lies. If you only take one thing from this entire episode, let it be this: income is not wealth. Income is flow. Wealth is stock. Income is the engine and the fuel to create the money machine that is built on your wealth that gives you the freedom. Your freedom is not found in your income. Your freedom is found in the money machine. See, income is effort-based. You have to effort to drive that income unless you build the machine like we're talking about it. Wealth is system-based. See, fake rich says, I just make more. Real wealth says and asks, what happens if I don't? Here's the metaphor. Income is the water that's flowing into the bathtub. Wealth is how much stays there when you turn the faucet off. That's the game I want you to play. You can have massive water pressure and still have an empty tub. Okay? The cost of chasing more is that it never ends. That's like putting the water in the bathtub with the drain open. So it's going in and going right out. And there's always another number. There's always another milestone. There's always another upgrade. And you just feel unsatisfied. See, real wealth knows what enough looks like. Enough creates peace. It's more than just collecting. It creates motion. The shift in deciding what enough looks like before you hit it is the key, is to really get clear. And this is why we define your life when we work with our clients or our students first, because we want you to know what enough is. Not that you'll stop. But you'll know when you transition from that point of a life of demands to a life of choice. So the reflection here is this. Ask yourself the question, do I actually know what enough looks like for me? Or am I just chasing the next number? All right. Sign number 5, they look successful, but they can't articulate the numbers. Now, this is one that is like near and dear to my heart as an accountant. They avoid clarity to preserve an illusion, if you will. See, the fake rich often avoid the clarity of their numbers because it threatens the illusion that they're living in. And I see this when people come in and I'm sitting down and I say, well, what do the numbers look like? I go, I don't know, it's about, I mean, I literally, there was a gal back in the day when I was doing tax returns and I don't do them anymore when I was doing them. And I literally made house calls and I was in her home and she was a stylist. And I sat back and I said, how much money How much did you make? And she says, I don't know. I said, well, I need something for the tax return. She literally got up from the table, walks back into her room, comes back a few minutes later. She says, I made about $30,000. I said, okay. And I write it down. I said, how'd you figure that out? She said, I went and looked at everything I bought in my closet. Right? That is not the way to explain your numbers. That is not the way to know it. But yet often They lack the clarity. So they feel confident, but they can't explain the numbers. That's the thing. So if I float down into your life and ask, where's your money going? What's your burn rate? What's working and what's leaking? And I get vague answers, gut feelings, hopes. Here's the CPA truth. You don't have to be perfect with the numbers, but you do have to be present with them. At a minimum, you've got to know what's going on in your financial life. At a minimum, here's some things I want you to track. What is your monthly spending rate? What's your emergency runway? What's your net worth, your overall net worth and your investable net worth? And I've done other episodes on that. Okay. What are your income sources and how reliable and dependable are they? What's your savings and investing rate? At least track those. Okay, know the numbers. So if someone asks, you can tell them, but even if they don't ask, you can tell yourself. Here's a simple, simple test. If I gave you 5 minutes and a napkin, could you explain your financial life clearly? If not, that's not failure, that's feedback. See, the numbers don't restrict you, they free you. The shift here is in moving from hope-based money to clarity-based money. That's the game that I want you to play. All right, leads me to sign number 6. They're always busy, always stressed, and always grinding. They misinterpret activity. And this is about activity versus time. See, the fake rich measure wealth in activity and busyness. And they'll ask the question, how busy am I? How stressed am I? How hard am I grinding? As if it's a badge of honor. See, real wealth measures something very, very different. Time. See, I believe our wealth should be measured in time. The moments. How much of the moments of your life do you control? Do you have agency over? A rich life isn't measured by how much you do. It's measured by how much choice you have. And if you can't slow down, if you can't step back, if everything collapses the moment you stop pushing, you get off that treadmill, That's not freedom. That's fragility with momentum. Real wealth and real wealth metrics look like, how long could I step away? Okay. Or how many decisions can I simply delay? Or how much recovery time do I control? Can you step away like I did during the cancer? Can you step away by choice and not have it deplete your assets deplete your life, depletes your life force. See, the wealth, true wealth, is the ability to wait. And time is the real currency. So your reflection here is this, is to ask yourself, how much of my time is actually mine that I actually control? And that leads me to the last sign, sign number 7. They need you to know they're doing well. This is the difference between external validation and their identity. This one's a huge one. See, the fake rich, they need witnesses. They need the narration, the humble brags, the strategic mentions, the parading on, on Instagram. When money becomes their identity, it has to be seen. Okay. And here's the cost though. See, if money is being used to prove something, it can't be used to protect something. And that's the thing that we need to think about. Quiet wealth, quiet richness compounds. Loud wealth, it leaks. It leaks all over the place. And most people don't overspend because they want more stuff. They overspend because they want reassurance. The shift here is this: separating private success from your public identity. Your identity is not found in the bank account. It's not found in the investments. This goes right back to sign number 1 where we talked about alignment and values and everything else. Your reflection here is this. Ask yourself this simple question. Would this still matter if no one knew? Would you still do it? And if that's the case, then maybe it is something that fits in your life in alignment. But if it is not and you say, "Wait, I wouldn't do it if no one knew," that's a different game. All right? So here's the thing. Everything we've talked about points to one truth. Fake rich isn't a spending problem. It's an alignment problem. Fake rich optimizes for things like looking successful instead of being aligned, avoiding trade-offs instead of choosing intentionally. Comfort instead of fulfillment. More instead of enough. That's a status game. Status is about loudness. Status is fragile. Status only works if someone else is behind you. Wealth, richness, that's a different game. Wealth is personal. Wealth is quiet. Wealth compounds. Okay? Fake rich looks impressive. Real wealth, real richness, feels calm. A big bank account without alignment can still feel like a cage. The goal isn't to look successful. The goal is to build a life you don't need to escape from. And if this episode made you pause for a moment or made you feel a little uncomfortable, that's not a bad thing. That's usually where the real work begins, because earning more doesn't make you free. The money machine does. And I hope that you'll take on and look at these signs, not as a demonstration of you, but as a warning, as a signal, as a beacon to get you to say, hmm, am I thinking about this wrong? Am I looking at it wrong? Could I look at it differently? Am I making money decisions, financial decisions in alignment with the vision and values I have for my life? Because when you do, the amount won't matter as much as what you're doing with it, because the fulfillment comes from living it in alignment on and on again, because I've done both. And I'll tell you where the joy and the fulfillment comes from is when you do this values-based decisions, value-based spending, and in alignment. All right? So I hope that this helps. I hope you'll look at it. I'd love to hear from you which sign kind of hit the point for you that maybe rubbed you a little bit. Maybe gotcha and hooked you? What you're gonna do differently? Send me a DM, drop me a comment, let me know. All right. I love to have conversations with, with my audience. So, so please do that. And while you're there, if you haven't done so already, hit that subscribe button. All right. Give me a thumbs up. It makes YouTube happy. Also warms my heart. All right. Until I get a chance to see you in the next one or on your path, to financial freedom. As I always say, always, always strive to live a life that outlives you. See you in the next one. Cheers for now.