Jimmy Adams cut his teeth in the investment management industry as an analyst at Protective Life Insurance Co., where he assisted in the credit evaluation and relative value analysis of an $8 billion corporate bond portfolio.

After three years at Protective, Jimmy joined Jefferson-Pilot Financial, trading and monitoring the credit quality of a $3 billion corporate bond portfolio comprised of 120 issuers. He was also instrumental in Jefferson-Pilot’s inaugural issue of $300 million funding agreement-backed notes in June 2005.

In early 2006, Jimmy entered the placid waters of the mortgage bond market, where borrowers were known to repay their debts and fraud was a total anomaly. As a vice president in the product management group of a $30 billion money management firm, he serviced 40 client relationships by providing verbal and written commentary on performance, investment process, and portfolio positioning.

After three harrowing years in the mortgage market maelstrom, Jimmy sought refuge inside the yellow walls of a Waffle House. Waiting tables on the weekend graveyard shift over the next six months, he got a lot more than he bargained for.

Although he earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and an MBA in Finance, most of the author’s financial knowledge has been gleaned from his recent foray into foodservice and the writings of forgotten 19th-century economists. He prefers his eggs over easy and his hashbrowns “all the way.”