Relatives are blatantly lying to us about being poor...

For the past 2-3 years my wife's cousin has been venting to us about how poor she is. For context she is married with 3 kids, drives a very expensive SUV, takes trips several times a year to fancy hotels, eats out at nice places etc. They are really nice family members. They have us over for dinners often, our kids love each other too. We love spending time with them except for one thing....

Every single time we hang out she is complaining to us how stressed she is about money. For YEARS she's been saying they are several months late on rent and they're going to evict her any day. YET, somehow they've always managed to "get by". In the beginning I was trying to give her some financial advise things like "maybe dont eat out so much" or "sell your car and get something more economical" She would always agree but her lifestyle never changes. When we asked her how she can afford her lifestyle she would just say things like "credit cards" So now when she complains we just say "oh were sure youll figure it out, you always do".

We dont want to burn this bridge by offending them when they complain but its getting harder to fake sympathy especially since they just got back from a nice fancy trip from Europe..

My wife says that as long as she's not asking US for money then its none of our business which I agree.

Has anyone had this kind of situation if so any advice? Just let it go?

Posted Dec 10, 2025, 3:00 PM UTC

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