Fake rich

Author

Vincent Chan
June 01, 2025

Welcome to reThinkable - my Sunday newsletter where I share actionable money tips, strategies, and resources to help you make smarter money moves.

Read time: 3.0 minutes

Ever wonder “how the heck are people affording all this stuff?”

  • Your recent ex threw an 80k wedding (talk about salt in the wound).

  • Your coworkers order $18 salads for lunch every single day.

  • Your cousin quit her job but somehow has money to go to 20 concerts a month

  • Your friend just came back from a 2 week vacation, again.

Meanwhile, you’re looking at your life thinking: “Am I doing something wrong? “

I’ve felt this way MANY times before, especially when I was trying to build up a 12-month emergency fund so I could safely quit my job.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll break down why it’s easy to feel like everyone has more money than you and what you can do about it.

Visible vs Invisible

It’s easy to associate wealth with visible spending. 

Think about it, what do you picture when you think of someone who’s wealthy?

Fancy cars, big house, and designer clothes — things you can see and say “yup, they’re bougie”.

After all, many of us grew up watching shows like MTV Cribs. (Indoor bowling alleys and 12-car garages)

But looking rich and being rich are 2 different things. 

Between credit cards and buy-now-pay-later plans, people can easily show off things they can’t really afford.

At my first job, my coworker went on a 2 week luxury trip to Italy—and posted every second of it online. 5-star hotels, Michelin-star meals, 1st-class flights.

I couldn’t figure out how he pulled it off on the same salary as me.

Turns out, he put the whole $15k trip on his credit card and he said it’ll take him a MONTHS to pay it all off (hello, super high interest payments)

The truth is, real wealth is usually hard to show-off online because it’s invisible spending. I’m talking about the money you put in your 401k, Roth IRA, investment portfolio, and savings accounts.

The reality

While a lot of the wealth you see around you might be fake…sometimes, people really do have more money than you. That’s just how it is.

Thanks to scholarships, I went to college where 25% of the student body came from the 1%. Literal trust fund babies. 

I had classmates that showed up to class in $500 shoes, lived in penthouses off-campus, and casually flew to Cabo for spring break.

And no, they weren’t going into debt to afford it. They (or more accurately, their parents) were just rich-rich.

I’m not going to lie, I felt very jealous. It’s easy to feel down when you’re tight on cash and see others blow $800 on a night out.

But now that I’ve reached financial freedom, I can tell you this:

Focusing on jealously doesn’t get you anywhere.

What you should do instead

Comparison isn’t always bad. It can actually be a source of inspiration,

For me, the shift happened when I stopped asking, “Why are my classmates (parents) so rich?”

And started asking, “How did their parents (or great-grandparents or whoever) get so rich?”

It shifts your mindset from “This will never be me” to “What can I do to get there?”

I once got the chance to interview one of my wealthy classmate’s dad for class. He’d built a multimillion-dollar business from scratch.

I asked him for advice and it boiled down to this: save consistently, find ways to increase your income, and invest.

And honestly… that’s true. It’s what I did to achieve financial freedom now. 

I think many people have this mental blocker that building wealth is impossible.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Real wealth isn’t always flashy, but it’s possible. 

To making smarter money moves,

— Vincent Chan

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Vincent Chan

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