Anonymous wrote:I retired in my mid 40s after selling a business. But truthfully we accumulated enough to be ultra high net worth without the business sale.
Retiring at that age is weird when people ask. It feels awkward to say but people’s responses are even weirder. They literally cannot comprehend it. That I was not expecting.
I have tried varying responses.
The “I am retired” is so incomprehensible it usually leads to a whole conversation where they end up directly asking me if I have to work any longer (also awkward) or it just ends without them unserstanding and usually comes up again in the future.
I have tried the “I’m in real estate” since I hold considerable real estate assets. That also doesn’t work. Most people assume I’m a real estate agent and start asking me question which causes me to either have to tell them I just own real estate. That gets into uncomfortable for me conversations where I end up having to disclose my portfolio (feels like I’m being asked about my net worth).
I’ve tried “I’m an investor”. They ask in what which produces a similar uncomfortableness and conversation as to I’m in real estate conversation.
I lie and just tell them that I still do my old job. Depending on follow up and how far I will take the lie this is the easiest conversation to have probably because it’s least changed from what I used to do.
I tell them I’m an attorney. This is technically true. But I don’t practice. It is intentionally misleading. And half the time gets follow up questions at which point I’m either in the same scenario as above or just lying.
I wish I had a truthful response that didn’t make me or the asker awkward.
You just need to practice giving vague answers that lead to nowhere, and repeating them until people stop themselves out of embarrassment. It’s nice of you to care so much about not making the asker feel awkward, but they’re the ones making things awkward by continuing their line of questioning to try to ferret out your financial details and net worth. No need for you to get flustered, just keep calm and keep repeating yourself nicely.