The Five Questions Guide

A note from Matt

Money can create safety, time, care, and choice. It can help us prepare for difficult seasons and support the people and causes that matter.

It cannot decide what a worthwhile life should contain. It cannot choose how we use our time, whom we love, what we contribute, or which chapter deserves our attention next.

The Five Questions are a place to begin. You do not need to answer them perfectly. You may discover that one question feels louder than the others. Start there.

Write quickly. Be honest before you try to be impressive. Return when your answer changes.

Right now, the question I most need to answer is…

How to use this guide

Work at your own pace, in any order. Question five includes a separate six-question online quiz. Its scores are a starting point for reflection.

1. Read the question.
2. Notice the first answer.
3. Write without editing.
4. Circle what feels alive.
5. Choose one small action.

Question 01

Am I safe?

Safety can include money, home, health, relationships, information, and the confidence that you can meet change.

What would “safe enough” mean in your life today?

• Write what comes first.
• Consider financial, practical, relational, and emotional safety.
• Name one small action that could support safety this week.

Question 02

What do I really want?

Some goals are chosen. Others arrive through family, culture, status, habit, or a version of success that once felt useful.

Which goal still matters when nobody else is watching?

• Name one goal that begins with “I should.”
• Name one goal you care about for your own reasons.
• Ask what you want money to make possible.

Question 03

How do I get it?

A meaningful direction needs a practical form: a decision, a date, a conversation, a habit, or a request for support.

What is the smallest honest action available this week?

Move from value to goal, decision, and action.

• Name the action.
• Choose a date and time.
• Identify any support you need.

Question 04

What comes next?

A new chapter can create space for attention, relationships, learning, contribution, and a practice that helps you stay present.

Where could your time, care, or experience matter now?

• Consider attention, people, learning, contribution, and practice.
• Notice what keeps asking to be named.
• Write one place where your experience may be useful.

Question 05

What is my financial archetype?

The way you relate to money can shape what safety means, what you want, how you act, and what you imagine for your next chapter. Financial archetypes offer language for noticing the patterns behind those choices.

Take the six-question quiz

Answer the six questions, then read your scorecard and the short descriptions. You may recognise yourself in several financial archetypes.

The quiz is an exercise within question five of this guide. Its six questions help you explore your money patterns. Your result is a starting point for reflection, not a fixed identity, diagnosis, or personal financial advice.

Financial archetypes: Brent Kessel, It’s Not About the Money.

The patterns I recognise

Write the names of any financial archetypes that stand out in your results. Include more than one if that feels true for you.

Notice the pattern. Choose your response.

Different patterns may appear in different situations. Use your results to notice the choices available to you now.

• Gifts and strengths: What does each pattern help me protect, create, notice, or offer?
• Habits that create difficulty: Where does a habit around money lead to tension or choices that no longer serve me?
• Return to the first four questions: How do these patterns affect my answers about safety, desire, action, and what comes next?
• One small action: What is one action I can try this week with greater awareness?

What your answers reveal

Read all five question sections again. Include your quiz reflections. Circle repeated words. Notice what creates energy, what creates tension, and where one answer depends on another.

• Words that repeat
• What creates energy
• What creates tension
• What deserves care

Write one sentence that gathers the page.

Your next thirty days

Choose an action from any of the five questions, including a money habit you want to practise. The plan needs to give that action a place in the next month.

• What matters now?
• What will I do?
• When will I do it?
• Who or what can support me?
• How will I know I began?

A better question can be a real next step.

You may finish this guide with a decision. You may finish with a more honest question. Either can move the chapter forward.

What would make this chapter feel well lived on my terms?

Return to these five questions as your life changes. Notice how your relationship with money shapes your sense of safety, your choices, and what comes next.

Read the latest Life Insights or joinThe What’s Next Letter for one useful idea, one honest question, and one small action.