Discipline without the dopamine
The boring middle is that long stretch in a FIRE journey where nothing spectacular happens anymore.
In practice, it’s discipline without the dopamine.
No more dopamine from cutting another expense, because you’ve already optimized everything. No more dopamine from opening a new IBKR account, because you already have yours. No more dopamine from getting CHF 50 as a welcome bonus after finding the best Swiss bank account, because that’s already done.
What’s left? Pure discipline. For a good ten to fifteen years.
I joined the FIRE movement in 2013. And this boring middle, I experienced it head-on. Except that, looking back, I didn’t just “get through it.” I spent years chasing replacement dopamine hits, until I found something much deeper.
Here’s how it played out for me.
2013-2015: the phase where everything is new (and exciting)
It all started with a simple goal: buying our own home. That goal made us realize this dream would stay just a dream if we did nothing about it.
And one thing led to another: we discovered YNAB for budgeting and its forum, then mrmoneymustache.com, then the FIRE movement, and then… I launched mustachianpost.com to document my FIRE journey in Switzerland. And here we are today.
The goal we set back then was to reach CHF 2'156'000 in net worth and become financially independent by age 40.
Those first two years were pure euphoria. Every week, a new optimization. Every month, another expense we’d cut. Not all at once, because some had to wait until a contract ended, like our car insurance for example. It must have been late 2015 when we finished optimizing everything. But the dopamine was flowing. Every action gave a visible, immediate, rewarding result.
Our net worth went from CHF 48'500 in early 2014 to CHF 207'000 in early 2016.
When you’re in this phase, you think it’ll keep going like this forever. Spoiler alert: nope, it won’t…
2016-2019: the plateau and the first doubts
Once all expenses were optimized and the best investments were in place, we only had one variable left to increase: income.
That’s exactly what I did. I focused hard on increasing my salary. I gained knowledge in all kinds of fields, which helped me grow my skills and my pay. On one hand, it wasn’t boring at all, because I was constantly learning.
But on the financial side? The boring middle was rearing its head.
Nothing new to optimize. No more “quick wins.” The automatic transfers to IBKR went out every month like clockwork.
In terms of net worth, we were at CHF 217'000 in early 2017. CHF 292'000 in early 2018. And CHF 347'000 in early 2019.
It was going up. But slowly. Too slowly for a dopamine-hungry brain that had known the quick gains of the optimization phase. And also, too slowly to reach our FI goal of CHF 2'156'000 by age 40!
And that’s when something interesting happened.
2019-2020: the mirage, COVID, and a blog reader
Around 2018-2019, I had the feeling that the goal was less than a decade away. And that’s a vicious psychological trap: when you sense it’s “close”, your brain starts believing it’s like tomorrow, or next month.
Except it’s a mirage. A mirage that moves one step further away with every step you take toward it.
And COVID in 2020 didn’t help. My motivation was really up and down. Some weeks I felt on fire (no pun intended), and others, my financial independence goal seemed so far away…
But in late 2018, something decisive happened. I met Thomas, a blog reader who was investing in rental real estate (hi Thomas if you’re reading this!)
Seeing him do it, concretely, inspired me to take the leap. We bought our first rental property. Then a second one. Then a third, which we still own today.
And I noticed a pattern that keeps repeating in my journey: what triggers me is seeing someone else go for it. It inspires me. And that’s one of the reasons I still run this blog, with my articles, my book, my programs, my net worth updates. Because the email feedback confirms the same thing: it inspires readers to take action. The virtuous circle.
Our net worth reached CHF 606'000 by the end of 2020.
Real estate had given me new fuel. A new source of dopamine. But was it really the right one?
2020-2025: value investing, or dopamine disguised as strategy
In 2020, I got into value investing. For five years, I followed company analyses through a paid newsletter, tracked undervalued stocks, hunted for bargains.
It was cool. Intellectually stimulating. And most importantly, it gave me my dopamine fix. Every purchase of a cheap stock was a little hit. “Look at this company at 0.6x book value. So awesome!”
But looking back, it was a lot of distraction for not much gain. Rental real estate had become my real “investment” dopamine source, with much better returns. And value investing, despite an honest 8.1% annualized return over 6 years, had become noise in my strategy. So I ended up stopping value investing to focus on what truly mattered.
The lesson I take from this: when you’re chasing dopamine in your finances during the boring middle, it’s a signal. A signal that something is missing elsewhere. Not in your portfolio, but in your life.
And while I was chasing those dopamine hits, something deeper was building in parallel, without me fully realizing it at the time.
What truly carried me: finding meaning before reaching FI
Writing is a passion I’ve had since I was a kid. I lost it along the way after high school, and this blog helped me rediscover it. In 2016, I made the conscious decision to commit to it. And since then, it’s only grown, fueled by reader feedback and the concrete impact of my words on real people’s financial decisions.
The blog and all the related projects gave me something that neither real estate, nor value investing, nor any return could ever provide: a deep sense of purpose. A reason for being.
Even if today I had to blog full-time (I mean without being FI, to earn a living), I wouldn’t see it as work. Writing articles, books, sharing what I learn. That’s what feeds me.
And looking back, every decision I made over these 13 years reinforced my goal, one way or another. Increasing our income. Increasing our returns. Finding creative ways to cut expenses even further. None of it was wasted. Even value investing taught me what I didn’t want to do with my life (read: being dependent on dopamine hits).
Our net worth grew significantly between 2021 and 2026, going from CHF 606'000 to CHF 2'146'000 at the start of this year. The snowball effect of compound interest in the stock market, combined with real estate and our growing income, did the rest.
Exponential growth is only visible in hindsight. In the moment, it’s a desert.
And that’s exactly what turned my boring middle into something bearable: having found meaning alongside the financial machine that was running on its own.
What I wish someone had told me at the start
The boring middle in the FIRE movement is very real. Like in any long-term project. A professional skier aiming for the Olympics doesn’t get there in 3 months or even 3 years. It’s the project of a lifetime.
And the FI journey is the same.
I would have loved to know these three things at the start of my journey:
1. Be aware that the boring middle exists
The first step is simply knowing it’s going to happen. Naming it already takes away some of its power.
You’ve optimized all your expenses, chosen your investments, automated your transfers. And now? Now you wait. For years. And that’s normal. It’s actually a sign that everything is working well.
“The boring middle in the FI movement is a sign that you’re on the right path to financial independence.”
2. Find what feeds you for the post-FI life
The best advice I can give, beyond chasing raises and better returns (because yes, that’s still what’s making me reach FI soon), is to keep some of your time for exploring what feeds you on a deeper level.
And no, you won’t find it by mindlessly scrolling TikTok or Instagram. That’s too passive. Maybe 5-20% of your inspiration can come from there. But the rest, you need to practice. You need to be in the doing. You need to test in your real life whether you’ll enjoy doing something beyond 3 seconds of dopamine-boosted video.
3. Write down your “why” (and say it out loud)
Something you should dig into from the very start of your FI journey is the “why” behind this adventure.
I have the genes of a disciplined person. But without a strong “why”, “being free and independent” in my case, all the discipline in the world would have vanished after 4-5 years. I know this because I felt it in 2019-2021, when motivation was up and down and the goal looked like a mirage. What kept me from giving up wasn’t discipline. It was the “why” behind it.
My “why” is to be free and independent. Writing is what I do with that freedom. The two feed off each other, but it’s the “why” that keeps me on course when the sea is calm.
Because your “why” is what keeps you going when the dopamine stops flowing.
Your turn now
If you’re in the thick of the boring middle of your FI journey, or if you feel it coming, do one simple thing: write your “why” in the comments below.
Not for me. For you.
Expressing it to others is a first step toward making it real. And sometimes, that’s exactly what you need to cross the desert without getting lost.
Last updated: April 16, 2026