Let’s peep into Nigel Farage’s stylebook

TUNDE OYEDOYIN

Tunde Oyedoyin is a London-based personal finance coach and founder of Money Intelligence Coaching Academy, a specialist academy of personal finance. He can be reached as follows: +447846089587 (WhatsApponly); E-mail: tu5oyed@gmail.com

Ordinarily, you wouldn’t normally find the name of a Member of Parliament, MP, in a personal finance column. So I thought too. But all that changed on the second Sunday of this year when, while out on the streets on official matters, I thought it made a ton of sense to pop inside a Sainsburys store in West London to check out the newsstand.

Tell you what? Having already picked the Mail on Sunday before 7am, while on the way to the office, grabbing another Sunday newspaper wasn’t on my mind, though.

But then, on glancing through the newspapers and magazines, my eye caught the Sunday Mirror’s cover: “Nine-Jobs Nigel”. Underneath was a rider: “Farage’s outside earnings dwarf Commons salary”. Above the story itself was another – MP’s £571k from side hustles. As a personal finance coach, I couldn’t leave the store without doing the needful.

Thus, for far less than the price of the lunch Mrs O and I had at Shepherd’s Bush over a week ago, yours truly invested in that newspaper. Adding to one’s knowledge base by picking up the Mirror was actually a no brainer. I went back to the office happier and more excited than when I left. I didn’t even bother munching the stuff I’d earlier brought out from the fridge. Though that was partly because it was nearing home time.

Here’s the thing, though, the takeaway from Mr. Farage’s side hustles was so empowering that if one wasn’t getting paid to be at work that Sunday, I wouldn’t even consider seeking the services of an employment lawyer. In other words, the MP made my day and the tiny hit I took on my bank balance was worth its weight in gold.

By the way, aside from being the leader of the Reform Party, the name of Nigel Farage is synonymous with politics in British society and will certainly get mentioned in the history books whenever Brexit comes to the fore. But make no mistake about it, he’s got plenty of money intelligence upstairs.

Folks, whatever your profession, take a cue from Farage and have a side hustle. As a matter of fact, yours truly won’t mind buying him a cup of tea or glass of wine if we bump into each other on the street. That’ll be my own way of thanking him for the opportunity to invest more on my financial education.

Another lesson on the way to Peterborough

While on the afternoon train from Kings Cross to Peterborough for a meeting on the third Saturday of the year, a woman joined along the way and was asking for financial help.

What was impressive about her was her creativity. She had cards dropped off on seats and one of them was next to me. I really liked her effort.