David, I read your book “Start Late, Finish Rich” just at the right time…particularly the section on asking for a raise.

I work for a world-wide IT business as a supervisor. My background is in application development and management, and my job was managing a team of application developers and an escalated support helpdesk for a major account. My salary at that time was $76,000.

Recently I was approached by my director about taking a position in another group as the manager of engineering… a technical area where I felt completely unqualified. I told my director about my reservations, said that I would consider the offer, and would let her know my decision soon.

At that time, I was reading your book, and decided it was time to go for the challenge. Since the new job was the same level as the old job, my director had hinted that I would move laterally without a raise.

I waited about a week to give my answer, and when I did, it was in writing. I said that although I felt unqualified for the technical aspects of the job, I have excellent skills as a project and people manager. I agreed to take the job only if I received an accompanying promotion and pay raise.

Imagine my surprise when I received a resounding “yes” as my answer, and also a $10,700 pay raise! I was completely floored!

The real success in this story is that, also because of your book, I immediately maxed out my 401K plan with my raise, and still had money left over to contribute “catch-up dollars” to it also. I can already tell a big difference.

I was also carrying credit card debt on several cards, most of which had 12% interest rates, and one was 18%. I used your advice and researched competitive rates on the internet, and was able to get 2 of my interest rates down below 4%. I then consolidated all my cards onto those two. Using the DOLP process, I am working on paying off one card, and will start on the last one next. This really works!

David, thank you for giving such common sense advice that has changed my financial future. Your book has a permanent home on my desk!