Bloomberg news reported that former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, received about $1.6 million over an eight-year period from the mortgage company Freddie Mac. It was reported that the payments were consulting fees, and began 5 months after Gingrich resigned from Congress.
According to the Bloomberg report, Gingrich received $25-30,000 as a monthly retainer from May 1999 to 2002. Gingrich was later paid $600,000 in a second retainer contract for a two-year period according to the Bloomberg news report.
While I don’t have the details of the arrangement between Gingrich and Freddie Mac, it seems that Gingrich did not have to worry about how he was going to pay his electric bill or buy groceries after he left Congress. (Here is a link to the Bloomberg news report.)