10+ Stories About People Who Concealed Their Wealth but Ultimately Failed

We often picture the rich as people who wear designer clothes, expensive watches and jewelry. They switch cars like gloves and fly to Paris for a weekend stroll. But not all millionaires live up to their financial status. Sometimes their friends and even relatives don’t know how wealthy they are until they reveal it in some way.

• I was in college and I had a friend who was really nice and down to earth. He never spoke about his family or what they did. One day, I was with him in his car and he told me he needed to drop by his home to pick something up. We drove into an 8-story building, took an elevator to the fifth floor where I said hi to some of his family members. Later that week my friends and I were bored and somehow our pointless conversations went to assessing how poor or rich each of us was. We started counting all the people we know, and when we reached to my above-mentioned friend, one dude just gasped.
  Dude: “Oh, we can’t even come close to how loaded this guy is...”
  Me: “Whaaaa? I was at his apartment a few days ago... it was nice, but hardly a rich man’s apartment!”
  Dude: “You went to the 5th floor of the 8 story building, didn’t you?”
  Me: “Yeah...”
  Dude: “Man... you were in their family living room. The entire fifth floor is their living room. The entire 8-floor building is their house.” © Samer-Costantini / Quora
• I once logically deduced that a dude was wealthy because he didn’t have a job and was utterly unconcerned about this, and I thought that he might like to be a detective, you know, for funsies. He also owned a house and was renovating it. I was like ok, there is no way this guy can be this chill, without also being loaded. I pressed him into admitting it. He didn’t want to admit it because then people would only want his money. © faoltiama / Reddit
• I had a lady that worked in the floral department of the grocery store I worked at, that paid minimum wage to everyone. Every week, I’d pick up my check out of a box behind the counter. One time, I noticed that this lady had like 8 checks sitting in the box, so I got them and brought them over to her and said: “Hey, I think they broke your check up a bit.” And she said, “Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to pick those up for months now.” I just stared at her in disbelief for a few seconds, and she said that she really doesn’t use the money she makes here unless she and her husband go on trips and need spending money. She just loves to work with flowers and this was the closest place she could do it. © Ki****DJ93 / Reddit

• My wife and I met while she was in grad school and working a part-time job for not that much money. We dated for 2 years, then I met her parents who were both in their mid-60s and had retired recently. They flew coach, wore t-shirts and jeans/khakis with old sneakers. When we had dinner, I paid — which isn’t saying much since they would usually ask for Thai food take-out. 4 months after my wife and I were married, I inherited $60,000 and, once, I said to my wife that with this extra $60K it might be a good time for us to make a down payment on our own condo in the city, or perhaps on a house in the suburbs. My wife said, “That’s okay. Hold on to your money. I was talking to my dad recently and he said he can give us up to a million dollars to help with that.” © John-Matthews / Quora
• One random day, I just realized after 3 years of friendship that my friend never talked about work, and I then immediately realized he never mentioned anything about going to a job, or working, or bosses, or co-workers, or just anything even remotely work-related... ever! Anxiously — I asked him how he paid his bills. He explained that his “family just has money and that he just checks on his account a couple of times a year when he needs to pull out some cash.” This all came from the mouth of my friend who drove a 10-year-old Ford Ranger pickup truck with dents and scratches all over and who wore discounted clothing until it fell completely apart. © Engin Ayaz / Quora
• I had an online date with a guy from London. He claimed to be from a very rich family, but I thought he was just boasting. Then he suggested meeting me, saying he would fly to where I am just for me. I didn’t think he was serious, but I got a new dress anyway. And then we met on the day he promised. It turned out he was telling the truth — he was really wealthy and flying to another country for dinner with a girl was no big deal for him. That was about 10 years ago, and we didn’t end up together, but we’re still friends. He’s an amazing guy.

• I grew up attending a private school in a developing country. Whenever we’d be swimming in the school pool, one friend of ours in particular would always remark that swimming is more fun if the pool has a current or waves. To which I had no idea what he was talking about and generally thought he was just being imaginative. One day he invited me over to his house to go swimming and... He had a 50-foot indoor pool that generated currents/waves. © huazzy / Reddit
• My friend Matt had a classmate who was a typical nerd. He was bullied by everyone, and only Matt stood up for him. 10 years later, a model-like girl contacted Matt on social media, asking if he remembered the nerd, and saying that she wanted to surprise her husband by inviting his old friend to his birthday. Matt was skeptical, thinking it was a prank, but no — he received tickets and flew to Dublin. The classmate had become a very rich guy, some kind of financial trader.

• My friend, who lives in France, is very frugal and always scolds me for spending too much. We met online and she invited me to visit her one day. However, right before I got there, she suddenly told me that she would send a driver to pick me up instead of meeting me herself. I wondered: a driver? She’s a housewife with three kids who buys cheap hair dye at the supermarket. But when I got there, I was shocked — it was a real driver, who took me to a huge mansion with servants and a four-hectare garden. It turned out that her husband was a hotel mogul, but she came from a poor family and couldn’t shake off her old habits.
• A very shabby man came to our beauty parlour for treatments, always overgrown, looking like a homeless man. He left good tips. It turned out he was a millionaire, a jeweller, with his own island. © Irina Aksman / Facebook
• I had some acquaintances who lived in a ruined flat, where the column leaked and the bathroom was in the kitchen. They saved on everything, calculated everything to a penny, gave gifts with second-hand things. They collected jackets, trousers and skirts for their children. We, of course, helped. Everyone wondered what they spent their money on, because both of them received good salaries, and they didn’t spend much, they didn’t even celebrate their children’s birthdays. And when no one wanted to hire their son after medical school, they simply opened a clinic for him in women’s health and reproduction. I wasn’t even surprised. © Elena Sveshnikova / Facebook

• I have a very good friend who used to drive a very, very old second-hand car. Also, he used to never tip waiters and would always search for cheaper options for everything. Once, I started a business and needed some investment money. I had already received help from 5 of my friends, which was seemingly enough to start the venture, along with my own money. When my cheapskate friend found out about my idea (I never told him myself), he came to me and said he would like to invest in my venture because he loved the idea. Then he offered me an amount which was almost double the combined investment of the other 5 investors! © unknown author / Quora
• My coworker asked for help moving her stuff so I borrowed my boyfriend’s truck to help move furniture. Got there and she was just moving the clothes and some personal items. Asked about the furniture and she said her parents always buy her all new furniture when she moves and they just donate the “old” stuff to a women’s shelter. © 0rangeMarmalade / Reddit

These stories are from ordinary people who wanted to share a bit of their lives with everyone. We at Now I’ve Seen Everything think that the internet needs more of these stories with unexpected twists, so we would love it if you would share your own experiences in the comments. And together we will create new awesome articles.