Kay Bell has been a journalist her entire professional life, beginning as a reporter on a West Texas daily newspaper, detouring into constituent communications for a U.S. representative and subsequently as a Ways and Means Committee staff member, before segueing into corporate communications for a couple of Fortune 500 companies in Washington, D.C., and then coming full circle back to her consumer writing roots as Bankrate's tax specialist.

A native Texan, Kay returned to her home state in 2005 and started her Austin-based editorial services company, Write Here! In addition to that enterprise and her Bankrate duties, Kay writes about financial matters in a monthly column for austinwoman magazine. Her other clients include a major mutual fund company, as well as national and local business associations. She also keeps a separate eye on the IRS at her other tax blog, Don't Mess With Taxes.

In November, Kay was appointed to a three-year term on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, a federal advisory committee established under the authority of the Department of the Treasury to work with the IRS in finding ways to improve the tax agency's customer service.

Kay earned her B.A. in journalism, with a history minor, from Texas Tech University. When she's not writing, she and her husband enjoy bird-watching in the Texas Hill Country and beyond.