If you can just decide to cash out, you're not broke. I have personal and retirement investments. Neither is realized money until sold because the value is variable until then, as is the possible tax liability, and withdrawal from my retirement investments early comes with a penalty, etc. But it's still an asset that I can sell at any time. It has value, even if that value changes over time and on certain conditions.

So when a person says that they don't have money because they invest it all in some asset (stocks, a private company, physical assets, etc.), they are still being deceptive. They can trade that asset for cash whenever. They are still wealthy even if their assets aren't very liquid. They can even borrow on those assets, be in debt and still be millionaires. Pretending otherwise is deception.