Six words. A lifetime.
Haven't read 289 francs yet? Start with your own story.
Sarah is eight years old. It's Christmas. In a shop window, a dollhouse priced at 289 francs. She wants it. Her mother says six words:
“Because we just can’t afford it.”
That same evening, through her bedroom wall, Sarah hears her father:
“We have the money.”
So why?
Sarah will spend a lifetime understanding why. And understanding everything those six words decided for her.
Sarah doesn't exist. She was born from twenty years spent observing very different people carry, each in their own way, a version of her sentence.
You've probably heard yours. Or perhaps you've already said it.
You have twenty-five minutes to start understanding it. Or the silence, when no one said anything.
I created this test for that reason. It draws on more than forty years of international research and on one conviction: money problems are rarely mathematical. They play out in four worlds: what we believe, what we feel, what we keep from others, and what we do. The dish we choose without looking at the price. The question we don't dare ask. The number we tell no one.
You don't resolve your relationship with money with a spreadsheet. You understand it. You name it. You learn to live with it.
Make yourself a coffee, a tea or pour yourself a glass of wine. And bring a good dose of honesty: that part, I can't provide for you.
But I can promise you this: your answers will remain yours. Even if you invite the people close to you to take the test too, no one will read them. Not your partner, your children or your parents. The only things that will open up are your areas of alignment and your areas of silence: what you agree on without ever having said so, and what you never talk about.
Why? Because we don't answer honestly with someone we love looking over our shoulder. We answer for them. To spare them, to please them, to avoid an argument over dinner. And the portrait that emerges is no longer your own.
The test begins with a free profile. What comes next, you'll write on your own, as a couple or as a family. And if you want to know how Sarah wrote hers, the book is waiting for you.
Marion
How it works
One questionnaire. Three ways to explore it.
On your own
Your profile, then your portrait. What you inherited about money: a sentence, a story, a silence, a fear. And what it still decides for you.
As a couple
Each of you answers separately, without seeing anything from the other. Then a single page opens for both of you. Your areas of alignment: what you agree on without ever having said so. Your areas of silence: what you never talk about. And the questions to ask each other.
As a family
The same thing, from one generation to the next. What your parents left you. What you leave behind. What your children carry with them. Sometimes a sentence, sometimes a fear, often a silence.
Twenty-five minutes, in one sitting: the first answer is often the truest. On your phone or computer. Just once: there's no need to do it again unless you think you've changed.
For you
- 1
You answer
25 minutes, once.
- 2
You receive your profileFree
By email, as soon as you give your final answer.
- 3
You open your portraitCHF 29
It's already there in your answers. No additional questions.
On your own, you can stop there.
As a couple or family, what comes next:
With the people close to you
- 4
You invite
One code per person: your partner, your parents, your adult children.
- 5
Everyone completes steps 1 to 3
On their own, separately. Their portrait is already paid for by your code.
- 6
You discover together
One page, for all of you, once your portraits have been cross-referenced.
What you'll see together
- Your areas of alignment
- Your areas of silence
- The questions to ask each other
- Your profiles, if each person chooses to share theirs
What no one will see
- Your answers
- Your portrait
- What weighs on you
- Your income and debts
What you receive
Your profile, free
The link will be waiting in your inbox as soon as you give your final answer. Your way of relating to money, across four profiles. What supports you, before what weighs on you.
Your portrait, CHF 29
The profile tells you who you are when it comes to money. The portrait tells you where it comes from. What you inherited about money: a sentence, a story, a silence, a fear. And the voice that passed it on to you. Where it still makes choices for you. And what it protects, too.
What money does between you and other people: your relationship, your family, seen from your perspective. And the questions you have never asked yourself.
It's already there in your answers. Nothing more to fill in: simply pay for it to receive it by email. You decide at the end, with your profile in hand. You know the price now. Unless someone has already paid for it for you.
Go further
As a couple
At the CHF 890 restaurant, Sarah is calculating. Across the table, Raphaël, her husband, doesn’t notice: he has never had to choose the second-cheapest dish. Two money stories at the same table. And neither one is being told.
You send a code to your partner. Each of you answers alone, separately. Your profile and portrait remain yours: the other person will never see them. Once you've both finished, a single page opens at the same time for both of you. Your areas of alignment. And your areas of silence: who doesn't dare ask, who doesn't dare refuse, what you never talk about. Along with the questions to ask each other.
Only one of you pays: CHF 69 for both portraits and your shared page. The code the other person receives already covers their portrait. Paying for the other person gives you no access to anything they answered.
As a family
“We can’t afford it?” Emma, her daughter, is ten years old. On the kitchen table lies her first fifty-franc note. And from her own mouth, Sarah hears her mother's words. The ones she had sworn she would never say.
In every family, a sentence travels from one generation to the next. We don't always know which one. You invite your parents or your adult children, each with their own code. Everyone answers alone. Together, what opens up is what will be passed on beyond the amounts, what repeats from one generation to the next, and the subjects everyone avoids. So they don't inherit your silence.
A transfer is only successful if the family hasn't been torn apart along the way. The person who invites pays for everyone: from CHF 119. Each person keeps their own portrait.
What stays between us
Privacy is what makes honesty possible. And here, honesty is everything: a test you lie to creates someone else's portrait.
What we do with your data
Your answers serve one purpose: to create your profile and your portrait. They are hosted in Zurich, Switzerland. They are neither sold nor rented.
No one sees them, not even the people close to you. As a couple or family, the only things that open up are your areas of alignment and your areas of silence.
Anonymised and combined with those of others, they also help us refine the test. We only look at averages.
Payments and emails are handled by specialist providers. They know your name and address. Never your answers.
What this isn't
Not a diagnosis, not investment advice, not a score out of ten.
In practice
What we ask you for
Your first name, last name, email address, date of birth and city. Your email, so we can send you the link to your profile. The rest, because we don't experience money in the same way at 25 in Geneva as we do at 60 in Delémont.
Give as a gift
We often gift someone a book. Rarely what comes next.
289 francs, with the portrait already paid for. The person who receives it reads Sarah's story, then discovers their own.
A code is waiting for them with the book. What they find there is theirs alone.
Not even you.