THE VIEW
Timothy Paul is a financial influencer with 900,000 followers across social media. He also runs his own accountancy practice with his business partner and has recently bought and renovated his first home. He talks to Lynda Clark about how it all began, the ups and downs of his renovation project and has some excellent advice for first time buyers A PASSION FOR PROPERTY!
Photos: Mike Prior
T imothy was born and raised in descent and his mother is originally from Ireland. He said, “It was uncommon 20 years ago to see a mixed race marriage in my area and I was the only dark-skinned boy in my primary school so it had its challenges. Nonetheless, we had a great upbringing and my parents instilled in us that hard graft is important in life. Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, with his brother. His father is of Caribbean “They also drilled into us from an early age that education was vitally important. I wasn’t a particularly academic student at school but I always worked extremely hard and had a natural strength when it came to taking exams. I got seven As and three Bs at GCSE, then I completed my A-levels in law, business economics and geography. I initially had it in my mind that I wanted to become a lawyer but soon realised it really wasn’t for me. The trouble was that I really wasn’t passionate about anything in particular. I saw other students with passions for topics like music and English literature but I just didn’t find myself
getting an internship or work experience but I blame myself for not exploring that more when I had the chance at uni. It was also a very competitive time for graduate roles, especially in the finance industry. Eventually in January 2021 I managed to secure a graduate job with Deloitte and I remember the weight of relief I had the moment I got the news. It was the first time I truly felt I was starting to gain my independence." It was during these dark days of rejection that Timothy downloaded an App called TikTok.“When I downloaded it in 2020, it was really just for teenagers posting memes and dance trends. I told my girlfriend that I had an idea to make a finance video and she said it was a stupid idea, believe it or not! But I decided to do it anyway and posted a video on how to get on the housing ladder using a Lifetime ISA. I looked at it the next day and it had no views so I decided to take it down but I actually forgot. “Then when I looked the following day, it had 20,000 views and within a very short space of time it had grown to over 200,000 views. What started as an idea eventually became a possible career as I continued to post more content and build
passion, I might as well pick something I could eventually make money from. The degree came as a shock to me initially as I hadn’t studied maths at A-level and it was really necessary as part of the course. So I bought an A-level maths textbook and taught myself the entire curriculum from scratch as it was the only way I could continue. The whole experience of going to university was amazing, but I struggled in the first few months as I had never lived on my own and couldn’t cook or clean. The summer before I went my mum tried to teach me to cook, which was a disaster!” Timothy found the job search in his final year of university a real struggle and said, “It was the hardest year at university as you obviously are looking at jobs for after you leave while studying for exams. When Covid hit, I left uni in March 2020 and I really struggled to get any work. I was living back with my parents and most of my friends didn’t go on to further education so they were working while I was sitting on my own most of the time. "I probably applied for hundreds of jobs and most of the time I never heard back from them or had any feedback so I was in a terrible spiral of rejections. Nobody had ever given me any support or advice about
naturally drawn to any of them. “I eventually decided to study
economics at the University of Sussex as I thought to myself, if I can’t find my
20 First Time Buyer December 2021/January 2022
20 First Time Buyer October/November 2025
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