5 Questions with Jay Slagle

Jay was recently promoted to Senior Advisor at RK. He began with the company in 2012 as an Associate Advisor.  Jay is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee where he majored in Public Administration and Political Science. Jay also completed a Masters degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance.

What led you to the financial planning industry and RK?

My job throughout college involved a lot of windshield time delivering tools for my family’s small business. I started listening to the Dave Ramsey show through podcasts to pass the time. More than any advice that was given, the people who called in changed my perspective around money forever. Whether it was the burden of significant debt or the relief when debts were finally paid off, I realized that we all have a relationship with money that goes far beyond a spreadsheet. At that point, I knew I wanted to help people make smart decisions with their money and started towards my CFP®.

What’s the best piece of financial advice you’ve ever received?

Invest in yourself. Like investments, knowledge and skills compound powerfully over time and it’s never too late to start getting better. Buy the book, take the course online, or get the additional designation. The value of small changes over a period of time will dwarf the up front cost of any investment in yourself.

You’re a big baseball fan. How are you filling your time with the sports shutdown?

ESPN’s documentary on Michael Jordan “The Last Dance” has satisfied some of my need for sports. The nice Spring weather has allowed for me to spend lots of weekend hours
grilling and trying to improve my skills on a smoker. It’s an art and a science and I’m trying to learn it all.

You’re an alumni of the Knoxville Fellows. Tell me about the program.

The Knoxville Fellows is a 10 month leadership development program where participants live together downtown, work in a field of their choosing, and attend seminary classes throughout the year. The vision of the program is to seek the peace of the city (Jeremiah 29:7) and explore what ministry looks like across a variety of vocations. The Fellows experience helped connect me even deeper to my hometown and is a year I’ll never forget.

You recently added a puppy to your household. How’s that going?

2020 was going to be a year full of travel and Kelci and me decided 2021 would be our target to get a puppy. Obviously by early March all those travel plans went out the window and not long after we got an e‐mail saying we were next off a waiting list for an 8 week old Golden Retriever puppy. Arthur has been home just over three weeks and he’s a lot of fun. He sleeps great (most of the time), wants to play (all of the time), and has been the best “plan B” we could have imagined.