Now we get specific.

Everything we’ve covered so far — the financial nervous system, the five stress responses, survival mode money responses — has been about the general landscape. This page is about you. Your patterns. Your nervous system. The specific ways your body has learned to respond to financial threat.

The quiz you’re about to take is a diagnostic tool. There are no good or bad scores. There’s no version of your results that means something is wrong with you. The only thing this quiz can tell you is the truth about your patterns — and the truth, as I said before, is always a better starting point than shame.

One important ask I’ll make before you begin: answer for your real life, not your aspirational one. The version of you that exists right now, not the one you’re working toward. That’s the only version this quiz can help.

About the quiz

The Survival Mode Money Response Quiz lives on a dedicated page outside this curriculum. It takes about three minutes. You’ll answer 25 statements across the five patterns we covered in the last part — Flight, Fight, Freeze, Fawn, and Relief-Seeking — and you’ll get back two things: an overall score that tells you how activated your financial nervous system is generally, and individual subscores for each of the five patterns showing you which ones are most dominant for you specifically.

Take the quiz now, and come back to this part when you’re done. We’ll be referencing your results throughout the rest of this module.

Make sure to capture your scores

Your overall score and your five individual pattern subscores will be saved automatically to your profile in this curriculum, so you can always come back to them. But I’d encourage you to also write them down somewhere physical — on a piece of paper or in a journal.

Here’s why: you’re going to retake this quiz at the end of Module 1, and seeing the numbers shift in your own handwriting lands differently than seeing them update on a screen. There’s something about the physical act of recording a number and then writing a new one beside it weeks later that makes the change feel real in a way that digital tracking doesn’t always manage to.

So before you take the quiz: grab a pen. After you take it: record your overall score and your subscores for each of the five patterns. You’ll thank yourself later.

When you’re ready, take the quiz. I’ll be here when you come back.

What your scores mean

Find your highest section. That’s your dominant pattern — the one your nervous system reaches for first under financial stress. Your second highest is likely your secondary pattern, the one that shows up when the first isn’t available or isn’t working.

For your total score:

0–20: Your financial nervous system is generally centered. This module will sharpen your awareness and give you language for what you already do well.

21–45: You have specific situations and triggers that pull you into dysregulation. The tools in the next few parts are highly relevant for you.

46–70: Significant portions of your financial life are running on nervous system reactivity. This module is essential for you.

71+: You’re likely experiencing chronic financial dysregulation. Consider whether additional support alongside this curriculum might help you move faster and more gently.