Deeply Invested: Manage Money, Budget, Save, Invest, Build Wealth
Oct 1, 2026 · 8 min · 9 segments
Your raise is often decided in a meeting you're not in, and probably well before your review. This week, Maddie walks through the two moves to make before raise season locks in: updating your brag…
So here's the shift I want you to make.
Your raise usually isn't decided in your review.
It gets decided in a planning meeting you're not invited to, where your manager is trying to make the case for you alongside everyone else on the team.
So your job isn't to walk in and win an argument.
Your job is to make your manager's case easy.
They're your advocate in that room, and right now, most advocates are walking in empty-handed.
That's what a brag list really is.
It's not bragging, it's documentation.
You're handing the person in your corner the evidence they need to fight for you.
Okay, so let's talk about myths.
There are three myths that keep people from doing this.
Myth number one: good work speaks for itself.
It doesn't always.
Your manager is juggling their own work, their own boss, and you and maybe other people on your team as well.
What you did in March is long gone from their memory by October.
Good work speaks for itself only if someone wrote it down.
Myth number two: bringing up raises early is pushy, and that's not true.
Asking how a process works is not pushy, it's professional.
You're not demanding a number, you're asking how decisions get made and what you need to do.
Most managers respect that.
And myth number three: I'll just bring it up at my review.
By then, the budget may have already been set for raises and promotions.
If you wait until the review, you're often negotiating inside a decision that's already been made, and that's the timing trap we're trying to avoid today.
So here's the shift I want you to make.
Your raise usually isn't decided in your review.
It gets decided in a planning meeting you're not invited to, where your manager is trying to make the case for you alongside everyone else on the team.
So your job isn't to walk in and win an argument.
Your job is to make your manager's case easy.
They're your advocate in that room, and right now, most advocates are walking in empty-handed.
That's what a brag list really is.
It's not bragging, it's documentation.
You're handing the person in your corner the evidence they need to fight for you.
Okay, so let's talk about myths.
There are three myths that keep people from doing this.
Myth number one: good work speaks for itself.
It doesn't always.
Your manager is juggling their own work, their own boss, and you and maybe other people on your team as well.
What you did in March is long gone from their memory by October.
Good work speaks for itself only if someone wrote it down.
Myth number two: bringing up raises early is pushy, and that's not true.
Asking how a process works is not pushy, it's professional.
You're not demanding a number, you're asking how decisions get made and what you need to do.
Most managers respect that.
And myth number three: I'll just bring it up at my review.
By then, the budget may have already been set for raises and promotions.
If you wait until the review, you're often negotiating inside a decision that's already been made, and that's the timing trap we're trying to avoid today.
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