Money Diaries

On “Girls,” He Wasn't Just Playing a Broke Guy in His 30s

Alex Karpovsky sits down with filmmaker Errol Morris to discuss how feeling destitute (he once went to a loan shark!) changes you — even after you strike it rich.

Written ByThe Editors
on

Wealthsimple makes powerful financial tools to help you grow and manage your money. Learn more

Wealthsimple is a whole new kind of investing service. This is the latest installment of our recurring series “Money Diaries” where we ask interesting people to open up about the role money has played in their lives.

Alex Karpovsky didn't become financially independent until his mid-30s. In fact, before he began his six-season run on “Girls” as a kind of embodiment of the generation stalled by the Great Recession, he lived with his parents on and off. It all has an effect on you. On the one hand, he feels the need to live like he's got nothing, and on the other suspects he doesn't deserve the financial success he's had.

Recommended for you

In the newest video in our Money Diaries series (you can see actor Brian Tyree Henry star in his own video here),Karpovsky tells Academy Award-winning documentarian Errol Morris what that's like, and how his immigrant parents informed his spending habits (they were especially good at teaching him that only terrible spendthrifts leave the lights on).

Wealthsimple makes smart investing simple and affordable.

author

Written By

Wealthsimple's education team is made up of writers and financial experts dedicated to making the world of finance easy to understand and not-at-all boring to read.

Recommended for you

Money Diaries

Less than 5% of Canada’s truckers are women. I’m one of them

One Toronto driver on how long-haul truckers can easily make $100,000 in a good year, and why the money doesn’t fully justify the dangerous lifestyle.

Money Diaries

How I Lost $1.6 Million in Bitcoin in 8 Minutes

And how I am staying sane now that it’s all gone.

Money Diaries

Salary Confessions: 14 Canadians Get Candid About Their Wages

We asked a bunch of Canadians (with neat jobs!) how much money they make … and their answers revealed way more than just a number.

Money Diaries

To Win Four Oscars, Sean Baker Had to Go Broke Again and Again

Baker has made a career of spending his own money to tell stories Hollywood wouldn’t. It paid off at the 97th Academy Awards.

Money Diaries

Money Diaries: Pride Edition

For the last five years, our “Money Diaries” series has been all about telling truths. In honour of Pride Month, we share some of the greatest conversations we’ve had with LGBTQ+ icons.

Money Diaries

Roxane Gay on Financial Independence: 'The Most Important Thing a Woman Can Do for Herself'

She's the best-selling author of 'Bad Feminist' and 'Hunger.' And until five years ago she'd never saved a penny. The author on her complicated relationship with money.

Money Diaries

Anthony Bourdain Does Not Want to Owe Anybody Even a Single Dollar

Before he was the guy from Parts Unknown, he was 44, never had a savings account, hadn't filed taxes in 10 years, and was AWOL on his AmEx bill. That turned out to be a great financial education.

Money Diaries

Shangela Would Like to Remind You to Tip Your Drag Queen

The perennial crowd favorite on 'RuPaul's Drag Race' talks wig economics and why resourcefulness is a vocational imperative.

Money Diaries

Natasha Rothwell's Character in “The White Lotus” Finds an Angel Investor. Her Real Life Didn't Quite Work That Way.

A Money Diary about subsidized housing, writing for “Saturday Night Live,” and getting into credit card debt from the actress (“Insecure”) and writer.

Money Diaries

Love and Crypto: The Hackatao Story

Just before their show at Christie's, the crypto-artist duo talk to us about money, marriage, and the blockchain.

Money Diaries

Karen Russell: A Brutally Honest Accounting of Writing, Money, and Motherhood

The novelist didn’t realize how fervently society wants to turn us into calculators — every action has a payment or a fee — until she had her first child. Here she reckons with motherhood’s ticking meter: every minute with her kids is work lost, and each minute writing subtracts from precious, un-price-able joy.

Money Diaries

Joel Kim Booster Was in Massive Student Debt Until Two Years Ago

Before he was cast in Sunnyside or had a Comedy Central special or wrote for Billy on the Street, he was raised working class in Illinois, saddled with huge student debt, and worked marathon hours doing customer service for Groupon. Joel Kim Booster shares his money story.

  • Money Diaries

    Stories From Our New Economy: Bullish on Bidets Edition

    Our new Money Diaries series tells stories of humans whose lives have been upended by this crisis. In this edition we meet four businesses (the owner of a bunker company, a bespoke distiller, a day-trading celebrity, and a bidet magnate) that took unexpected turns.

  • Money Diaries

    Alison Roman Is the Patron Saint of Home Cooking and Everyone’s at Home

    She always wanted to cook and never thought much about money. But life gets strange when everyone’s wondering what to do with half a pound of broccoli and some dry kidney beans and you know the answer. The chef and cookbook author on her pandemic money story.

  • Wealthsimple

    Grow your money

    Smart investing tools and personalized advice designed to build long term wealth.

    Get started

  • Money Diaries

    Pandemic Money Diaries — Panic at Trader Joe’s Edition

    Our virus-era Money Diaries series tells stories of humans whose lives, financial and otherwise, have been upended. In our first edition: a grocery clerk, a weed dealer, the author Jon Mooallem, a restaurant manager, and a male escort.

  • Money Diaries

    Cult Animator Carson Mell Decided Making Stuff Was More Important than College

    The maker of the underground hit “Chonto,” writer on “Silicon Valley,” and author of "Cherry on Top" took a circuitous route to Hollywood success. A route that ran through the grocery store deli counter.

Wealthsimple

Grow your money

Smart investing tools and personalized advice designed to build long term wealth.

Get started