ILikeStarTrek
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2017
- Messages
- 107
I hope (pretty much expect) to FIRE next year, at age 55. Not as early as some people on this forum, but still 10 years younger than what I believe is average. I have some relatives and casual friends who are not doing well financially, and I feel reluctant to tell some of them that I will have FIRE'd. They probably already have a sense that I am doing well financially, but once they learn that I am doing so well that I quit my job, there could be reactions ranging from jealousy to hitting me up for a loan. I've read one or two ER blogs where the bloggers said that when meeting someone, they generally give a kind of evasive answer about what they do for a living; but in my case, quite a few people know what I do for a living and where I work, and sometimes ask me how my job is going. If I quit my job, the only way I could imagine hiding that is by lying about it, which I don't want to do.
Perhaps the right answer is that I just shouldn't worry about it - if someone is jealous about my finances, that's their problem, and if someone asks me for money I can certainly say "no".
Still, maybe I just want to feel a greater sense of privacy.
I'd love to hear the perspective of people who have been FIRE'd for a while. Is this something that is a concern for you? Do most people who know you also know that you are FIRE'd? Does it in any way hinder your relationships with relatives & friends? Or maybe it's just the opposite; it could be that other people who are interested in FIRE would feel more free to talk to you about it if they know your status. What are other people's experience with this?
Perhaps the right answer is that I just shouldn't worry about it - if someone is jealous about my finances, that's their problem, and if someone asks me for money I can certainly say "no".
Still, maybe I just want to feel a greater sense of privacy.
I'd love to hear the perspective of people who have been FIRE'd for a while. Is this something that is a concern for you? Do most people who know you also know that you are FIRE'd? Does it in any way hinder your relationships with relatives & friends? Or maybe it's just the opposite; it could be that other people who are interested in FIRE would feel more free to talk to you about it if they know your status. What are other people's experience with this?