turneyduff

On Wall Street we sometimes used the phrase “f– you money.” (I think we stole that term from the hip-hop community.) It’s money spent that is financially offensive to others while perpetuating and maintaining an obscene lifestyle. And while I’m not proud of it I was totally guilty of being that guy… One of the … Read more

I used to be really rich. I made a lot of money on Wall Street, got addicted to coke, lost most of it… Oddly, that’s the best thing that ever happened to me, and it also means I have a unique window into how wealth makes people act really weird. It’s primarily the reason I … Read more

The best excuse I ever heard for calling in sick went something like this: “I can’t come in today. The hooker I called last night fell off the kitchen counter and broke her arm this morning. I have to take her to the hospital.” I’m not sure how much of a demand there is for … Read more

 It was a perfect summer flashback kind of day in mid-October. The staff wore admiral’s hats, and handed a flute of champagne to each guest as he or she stepped off the gangplank onto the boat. I wanted everything to look authentically nautical—well, at least as authentically nautical as a brunch for 150 RSVP’d people … Read more

 We hear a lot about the 1 percent in America, and we all have our own ideas of who they are. If we go strictly by the numbers, they might be the people who have household incomes north of $500,000, and a net worth of at least $1.5 million. Sometimes it’s not so clear, however. … Read more

The homestretch of bonus season on Wall Street is marked by the quarter pole of October. It’s a tricky time of year because the mental figures have already started to form in management’s head. Your boss will have a pool of money to divide up between you and your co-workers. It’s free swim. Sometimes in … Read more

 In the 1990s, I lived with a couple of roommates in a doorman building on the Upper West Side. Every December conversation would invariably come around to how much we should tip the doormen and handymen. My roommates would try and think back to who had been most helpful over the previous year. I’d just … Read more

A few months after I finished writing my book The Buy Side and right before it was published, I called my friend Brian McDonald. Brian is an author who knows infinitely more than I do about the world of books, so whenever I have a question about writing or publishing, I call him. Plus, I’ve come to … Read more