I grew up in New Tazewell, Tennessee and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1970 with a B.S. in Banking. My banking career included nine years at my hometown bank, a larger bank and the FDIC. In 1985, I founded the first fee-only financial planning firm in East Tennessee. It was merged into a large firm in 2020. Since January 2023, I have been working on a manuscript that describes my life as the son of a small-town banker in my hometown.