Do · experiments
Test it yourself
Updated 2026-07-31 · Sources: 3 · 17 experiments · 3 sets · every one falsifiable
Advice you cannot test is advice you have to take on trust. Each of these runs in a week or a month, costs little or nothing, and can fail, which is the whole point of listing the failure condition next to the hypothesis.
The premise. Every idea here is designed to be FALSIFIABLE. Each has a stated hypothesis, a cost ceiling, a time box, and a specific result that would mean 'stop'. An experiment you cannot fail is not an experiment. It is a purchase you have already decided on.
Each reference below opens that passage printed in full, in its own context, on this site. Read the stop condition before you start: it is what makes the rest of the box an experiment.
Test a money concept on yourself
Short personal experiments. The point is evidence about you, not about the theory.
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1The 30-day want list
Most of what I want, I stop wanting within a month.
- Method
- For 30 days, write every non-essential want on one list with the date and price instead of buying it. Buy nothing from the list until day 31.
- Cost ceiling
- Nothing
- Time box
- 30 days
- You measure
- On day 31, what fraction do you still want? Add up the prices of the ones you no longer want.
- Stop if
- You still want more than 80% of them, in which case delay is not your lever, and the problem is income or something else entirely.
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2Give first for one month
Giving before anything else does not break my budget, and changes how the rest feels.
- Method
- Move your giving to the day income arrives, before any other transfer. Change nothing else.
- Cost ceiling
- Nothing new, reordering only
- Time box
- 1 month
- You measure
- Did you cover your obligations? Write one sentence on how the month felt differently.
- Stop if
- You could not meet an essential bill. Then the giving amount, not the ordering, is what needs revisiting.
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3The cash week
I spend measurably less when spending is physical.
- Method
- Withdraw your discretionary budget in cash for one week. Cards stay home. When it is gone, it is gone.
- Cost ceiling
- Nothing
- Time box
- 7 days
- You measure
- Compare against the same week last month. Note where you stopped short.
- Stop if
- No difference. You already have good friction and can skip this one.
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4The subscription audit
I am paying for things I would not re-buy today.
- Method
- List every recurring charge from three months of statements. Multiply each by 12. Cancel anything you would not sign up for again this morning.
- Cost ceiling
- One hour
- Time box
- One evening
- You measure
- Annualized amount recovered.
- Stop if
- Nothing to cut. Genuinely possible, and worth knowing.
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5Absorb none of the next raise
I will not notice a raise I never saw.
- Method
- The week a raise or bonus lands, move 100% of it to saving before it touches your spending account. Live on exactly the old number for three months.
- Cost ceiling
- Nothing
- Time box
- 3 months
- You measure
- Amount accumulated, and whether your standard of living actually fell.
- Stop if
- Real hardship. Then split it 50/50 instead, which is the sustainable version.
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6Name your number
I have never actually defined 'enough', which is why I never reach it.
- Method
- Write down, as a single figure, the annual income and net worth at which you would stop wanting more. Then write what you would do with your time at that point.
- Cost ceiling
- Nothing
- Time box
- One hour, alone, on paper
- You measure
- Whether you can write the number at all without hedging.
- Stop if
- Nothing to stop, but if you could not write it, that is the finding.
Test a business before you build it
Ordered from cheapest to most committing. Do them in order. Most ideas should die at step one or two, and that is the system working.
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7The three-conversation test
Someone other than me has this problem and can describe it unprompted.
- Method
- Talk to three people in your intended market. Do not pitch. Ask what they currently do about the problem and what it costs them. Let them talk.
- Cost ceiling
- Nothing
- Time box
- One week
- You measure
- How many described the problem before you named it? How many are already paying to solve it badly?
- Stop if
- Nobody raises it unprompted, or nobody is spending anything on it now. Enthusiasm for your idea is not the same as a problem.
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8The pre-sale
People will pay before the thing exists.
- Method
- Describe the offer precisely, with a price. Ask for money or a signed commitment. Build nothing yet.
- Cost ceiling
- Nothing
- Time box
- Two weeks
- You measure
- Number who actually pay. "That's interesting" counts as zero.
- Stop if
- Nobody pays. This is the single most informative failure available and it costs you nothing but two weeks.
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9The manual version
I can deliver the value by hand before automating anything.
- Method
- Serve your first five customers entirely manually: spreadsheets, phone calls, your own hands. No product, no platform, no build.
- Cost ceiling
- Your time only
- Time box
- One month
- You measure
- Can you deliver it profitably at all? What did customers actually ask for that you did not predict?
- Stop if
- You cannot deliver it by hand. Software will not rescue a service that does not work when a human does it attentively.
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10The single-weekend build
A rough version is enough to test demand.
- Method
- Cap it at one weekend and one clearly-stated budget. Ship whatever exists on Sunday night.
- Cost ceiling
- Set a hard ceiling now and write it down
- Time box
- 48 hours
- You measure
- Did anyone use it? Did anyone return?
- Stop if
- You blow the time box. Overrunning at this stage predicts overrunning at every later one.
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11The break-even sheet
I know the number of sales at which this stops losing money.
- Method
- One page: fixed costs, cost per unit, price, units to break even. Then ask whether that number of customers plausibly exists within reach of you.
- Cost ceiling
- One hour
- Time box
- One evening
- You measure
- The break-even number itself, written down.
- Stop if
- The break-even requires more customers than plausibly exist in your reachable market. Better to find this on paper.
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12The price ladder
I am charging too little.
- Method
- Raise the price 25% for the next five prospects. Change nothing else: same offer, same words.
- Cost ceiling
- Possibly a few lost sales, which is the data
- Time box
- Until five prospects
- You measure
- Conversion rate and total revenue, not just conversion rate.
- Stop if
- Revenue falls, not just conversion. If conversion drops but revenue rises, keep the new price.
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13The integrity stress test
This business can be run honestly at the scale I am imagining.
- Method
- Write down the three moments where cutting a corner would be most profitable and easiest to hide. For each, write the policy now, before there is pressure.
- Cost ceiling
- Nothing
- Time box
- One hour
- You measure
- Whether you can name all three honestly.
- Stop if
- The model only works if one of those corners gets cut. Then the model is the problem, and no amount of personal resolve will hold. Amos 8:4-6 describes ordinary businessmen, not criminals.
Run with your household
The most durable financial formation happens at a kitchen table, not on a website.
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14The three jars, for real
A child who allocates their own money learns something a lecture cannot teach.
- Method
- Three physical jars: give, save, spend. Real coins. The child allocates. The named saving goal gets a picture taped to the jar.
- Cost ceiling
- Three jars and their existing allowance
- Time box
- Ongoing
- You measure
- Do they start allocating without prompting?
- Stop if
- Nothing to stop. But do not refill the spend jar early; that is the entire lesson, and rescuing it teaches the opposite.
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15The child's actual stand
A real customer teaches more than any explanation.
- Method
- They pick the product, set the price, buy the supplies from their own money, and keep the profit. You are staff, not management.
- Cost ceiling
- Their supply costs
- Time box
- One Saturday
- You measure
- Revenue, costs, profit, written down by them afterwards.
- Stop if
- Nothing. A loss is the best possible outcome for the price.
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16The monthly money meeting
A scheduled calm conversation prevents most money conflict.
- Method
- 30 minutes, same date monthly. Passage and prayer, then numbers read aloud with no commentary, then each person names one worry and one win uninterrupted, then next month's plan.
- Cost ceiling
- Nothing
- Time box
- 30 minutes a month
- You measure
- Count unplanned money arguments over three months versus the previous three.
- Stop if
- It becomes an argument venue. Then shorten it, keep it to numbers only, and rebuild from there.
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17The generosity decision, made together
Children who help decide the giving develop convictions rather than compliance.
- Method
- Let the household choose one recipient together each quarter. Everyone including the youngest gets a real say and states a reason.
- Cost ceiling
- Your existing giving
- Time box
- One conversation a quarter
- You measure
- Whether a child brings up a cause unprompted.
- Stop if
- Nothing to stop.
None of these predicts a result, and none of them is a promise. An experiment that comes back negative has done its job: you now know something about your own household that no article could have told you, and you paid a week to learn it. Scripture's counsel here is about counting the cost before building and testing before committing, not about outcomes owed to anyone. See how we read Scripture on money.
Provenance: all 17 experiments were ported on 2026-07-31 from this project's earlier build, with their structure unchanged; currency examples are in USD. Every anchor is a member of the site's verified 455-passage index, and each reference links to that passage printed in full on this site.
Related: 46 quick tips · the longer walk-through of testing a business idea · teaching kids about money