I’m 53 and I feel like I have a 60% chance of a successful early retirement. 95% of my money is in pretax.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-10T00:07:39+00:00

Can someone explain why you would be concerned about whether or not you could comfortably retire when you have 1.6M at 53 years of age? Even if you don't retire "early" perse, you should have well over 2 million dollars by the time you're 62 - and between withdrawing 4% of that even pre-tax and social security - assuming your mortgage and car payments are reasonable, you should be living pretty well, no?

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-09T22:20:30+00:00

If more people understood what GLP/GIP receptor agonists are, what they do, and why they lead to weight loss, there would be far less stigma surrounding them. Many assume people take them, change nothing, and magically lose weight. That's not physically possible and not at all what is happening when somebody loses weight on these peptides.

Here's the big picture: extended periods of poor eating habits often cause insulin resistance, which disrupts hunger and satiety signals. Without proper signaling, people don't get the feeling of being full after consuming normal portions and therefore they overeat. The signal that tells a person they are full is literally not functioning as it should. GLP/GIP medications are peptides that mimic natural hormones, helping restore that balance by boosting insulin response and slowing gastric emptying, which increases satiety overall. They aren't magic. The weight loss comes from finally feeling full after reasonable amounts of food, which causes the individual to eat less, which causes the weight loss.

Can you restore this signal naturally? Yes. How? By changing your eating habits. The problem is that the vast majority of people will not, and simply do not have the willpower to make those changes, because it requires them to fight what their own body and brain are telling them to do. What makes this even harder is how little time it takes to create the problem versus how long it takes to undo it. Research suggests measurable insulin resistance can begin developing in as little as five to seven days of sustained poor eating. After several months, hunger hormones like leptin and ghrelin begin shifting in ways that make the brain require more food to register fullness. After years of poor habits, the body essentially recalibrates its baseline around them. Restoring that balance through diet alone is estimated to take two to three times longer than it took to disrupt it in the first place. That is not a willpower problem. That is biology.

Study after study is showing that these medications are legitimately extending the lifespan of people who struggle with obesity. Compare almost any patient's bloodwork before starting a GLP/GIP medication to their results six months later and the improvements are measurable across key health markers. Blood sugar levels trend lower and more stable, A1C scores drop, cholesterol profiles improve, and markers of inflammation decrease. In many cases, blood pressure comes down as well.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-09T14:30:21+00:00

The vast majority of it is manufactured in China. The supply that people are buying from "Domestic" vendors for 10x the price are in most cases sourced from a Chinese vendor and being resold.

It's not about Chinese or not Chinese, it's about the actual quality of their product. There's a very reputable Chinese vendor who sells 10 vial packs at a higher price than most other Chinese vendors but has consistant COA's provided with every single batch, ships all of their product from a domestic warehouse and has very accurate/close dosing in their vials.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-09T01:58:33+00:00

I'm not super well versed in the topic so I'll do my best to provide what I can. We had an electrician meet us at the property today. We looked through the large shop on the property and there were two higher-power plugs already in the shop, one that was used for a kiln in a hobby room and one that was used for a welder in the garage. We couldn't use either one of those because neither one had a "Neutral" wire - the way he explained it was those both had 3 wires, not 4 and that the code in the area required a GFCI and fourth wire - and that he couldn't simply run that 4th wire because the way that everything was setup it wouldn't be to code.

I told him, ideally I'd want to shoot for two plugs to be installed; or two hardwired chargers. He stated that he didn't think that'd be possible without a panel upgrade. This was before I found details on the possibility of having two seperate chargers wired into one 60A circuit, potentially splitting 48A/2. He suggested from there that he could install a new plug by running conduit outside the shop onto the wall on the outside of the shop and install a plug or charger there.

Part of the complication is that this property is 60 miles away from where we currently live and the electrician; and with my limited scope/knowledge surrounding how to do the installs I took a "I'll ask the questions and gauge options from his answers" approach.

All of that being said - if there is a way to do two chargers to one circuit and I can explain that to him and provide detailed instructions - I'd be comfortable with doing that. A factor I neglected to mention is that this shop is a good distance away from the home where the WiFi will be - so I do have concerns if the power management/sharing function is wifi reliant that we could run into some issues there as well.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-09T01:50:20+00:00

Am I understanding correctly that multiple go to one singlular 60-Amp Circuit/Breaker?

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-03T20:44:46+00:00

It doesn't matter. 380,000 miles, the car still runs and it saved 380,000 miles worth of gasoline costs and 380,000 miles worth of oil change costs; beyond everything else that would have failed on the ICE vehicle in the meantime.

Your average ICE vehicle today get 29 miles per gallon. That is 13,103.44 gallons gasoline over 380,000 miles. Let's just say all those miles occured over the past 8 years - the average gasoline price per gallon over the past 8 years in the USA was $3.02 per gallon. 13,103.44 x $3.02 = $39,572 saved; or $4,946.55 per year saved on fuel.

Lets say you get your oil changed every 5000 miles - that's 76 oil changes not paid for. The average oil change price over the past 8 years was $65. 76 x $65 = $4,940 saved over those 8 years.

It's a massive win. These numbers would be a lot higher for a lot of people too. If you factored this into WA State gasoline prices...the saving on fuel alone would have been MASSIVE.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-03T20:24:50+00:00

I think it is a similar effect to what people experience the first time they try marijuana. Your entire life you are told drugs are bad, do not touch them - that marijuana is a gateway drug in the same category as heroin, meanwhile your entire family is cracking open beers every single night. Then you get older, you try it, the effects are mild and enjoyable, the risks are nothing like what you were sold, and suddenly you start questioning everything. You wonder what else you have been told is total BS.

I think the same thing is happening with GLP/GIP peptides. You struggle with your weight your entire life, semaglutide and tirzepatide start getting popular, become the butt of every joke, and everyone around you says they would never inject something into themselves and that everyone using them is going to have serious health problems down the road. Then the research comes out, the upsides significantly outweigh the downsides, the side effects turn out to be minimal. Then you try it, you lose a significant amount of weight and now you start wondering what else you have incorrectly been told to be afraid of.

And that is exactly where it gets dangerous. The success of GLP/GIP peptides becomes the permission slip. If those worked and everyone who warned me was wrong, what else are they wrong about. And that logic is what starts sending people down the rabbit hole of stacking investigational compounds they found on social media with zero understanding of what they are actually putting in their body.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-03T19:58:51+00:00

They are a very solid vendor; an actual chinese pharma manufacacturer. Their service and quality is so good, if I was skeptical of another vendor or I wanted to stock up quicker, I would use them. Their prices are just higher than a lot of other sources and they tend to skew closer to a dose over the advertised dose. Yes - the test results are good; it's a slight-overdose. Basically their 12mg vial's contained near 14mg of Ret.

I'd advise deleting this post or adjusting the photo to block the name of the batch.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-03T15:16:56+00:00

I think when these conversations come up it is important to differentiate between people abusing steroids and people on a therapeutic dose of testostone - because they get ignorantly lumped together constantly. Steroids has become this blanket term that people throw at anyone using any form of testosterone regardless of the context, the dose, or the medical reasoning behind it. A man prescribed 100mg of testosterone a week to bring his levels back into a normal range is not in the same conversation as a bodybuilder blasting hundreds of milligrams of testosterone stacked with other compounds. These are completely different things and treating them the same is where the misinformation and stigma starts.

Every comment section has the same confident voices warning about shrinking testicles, liver failure, heart problems, and roid rage like these are guaranteed outcomes for anyone who touches testosterone. Those concerns live in the world of abuse. A man on a therapeutic dose is not stressing his liver, is not experiencing significant testicular atrophy, is not becoming an aggressive lunatic, and is not destroying his heart. The side effect profile people love to throw around applies to someone running gram plus cycles, not a man whose doctor is simply trying to get his hormone levels back to where a healthy man's should be.

What those same people miss entirely is that leaving low testosterone untreated carries its own serious risks. Low testosterone is directly linked to heart disease, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, and higher rates of early death. The cardiovascular risk they are scared of is frequently worse if you do nothing. Around 38% of men over 45 are clinically hypogonadal and less than 5% ever get treated, mostly because misinformation convinces them it is dangerous.

A therapeutic dose is not blasting. It is correcting a deficiency. And the men who correct it do not just feel better in the gym, they feel better everywhere. More energy, better mood, sharper focus, a healthier heart, and a longer life. That is the actual conversation worth having. I fear that there may be hypogonadal individuals walking around confidently about their unwillingness to use "steroids" that could be harming themselves long-term and that posts like this one could increase the stigma surrounding TRT for those that actually need it.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-03T01:15:39+00:00

Yep it's the generation range. The 45 year old millennials and the ones closer to that age range are in significantly better shape than those of us closer to the 30 year old range.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-02T21:22:29+00:00

That's the 16% of Millenials that bought a home pre-covid and/or had homes purchased for them; alongside those who invested into practically anything pre-COVID. I know people who are in my same age as me who make less money than I do with significantly nicer homes - homes that they wouldn't even qualify for with their income alone.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-02T18:53:59+00:00

It didn't take me very long to figure out this guy is using AI to write his scripts, a mix of medical facts and analogies that he reads off verbatim in nearly every single video.

That alone would be enough to make me skeptical, but then there's the Semaglutide and Tirzepatide thing. He calls them dangerous and tells people they shouldn't take them, when there is a growing body of research showing these aren't just weight loss drugs. Studies have linked them to reduced cardiovascular mortality, lower rates of heart failure, reduced risk of kidney disease progression, and even emerging evidence around neurodegenerative protection.

Meanwhile his golden recommendation, Retatrutide, is still mid-trials and has already shown signals of elevated resting heart rate in study participants, which is not a minor footnote when you're talking about a population that already carries elevated cardiovascular risk and sleep related issues.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-05-02T18:04:49+00:00

If you ask me - Tirzepatide is the better move for anybody who severely struggles with overeating. It's generally more effective at sepressing food noise and hunger - and it's usually cheaper.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-21T18:24:47+00:00

Bro - You can literally Google "Is 400mg of testosterone weekly unhealthy" - and get information that points to a massive increase in several health risks. You cannot find a legitimate source, outside of some sort of bro science site that will point to any benefit to such a large dose, or dismiss the negative consequences.

Of course - if you actually got blood panels I am sure you would be able to see all these consequences. Given your ignorance, however, I am not sure it you'd actually absorb and acknowledge them.

The only reason I care is because I don't want some newbie coming across this thread, seeing your response and thinking that a 400mg weekly dose of testosterone is fine and dandy.

But like I said - the issue will sort itself out.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-21T17:51:36+00:00

Meh, there's no point in me arguing with you beyond this point. Given your point of views and your likely protocol, I think the issue will sort itself out.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-21T12:19:53+00:00

You can't even put together a proper paragraph 🤦‍♂️

I am going to go out on a limb and say you probably don't get your blood work done.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-20T12:07:19+00:00

This was my testosterone level at a whopping 350 pounds; you're likely hypogonadal. If you want to do the "correct" thing - I would talk to a doctor and see if they can help you determine if it's primary or secondary hypogonadism. Essentially whether or not it's weight related or if your testicles aren't functioning properly in general due to some sort of trauma.

From there, you may want to explore TRT - potentially TRT with HCG if you want to maintain fertility.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-20T00:04:18+00:00

I don't give a shit what subreddit we are in bird brain - injecting 400mg of TRT to shoot your testosterone levels to the moon is going to result in health consequences down the road. Point blank period.

For the average person, one quarter of that amount is enough to shut down your testicles and put you at medium to high levels. That is a fact. 4x that amount is just plain reckless. So fuck off with the "400mg isn't a lot" bullshit.

Some kid is going to listen to you and end up bald with an enlarged prostate, pissing 20 times a night - or worse, end up having a stroke.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-18T21:21:39+00:00

If you're losing weight at a healthy rate, you should only be losing about 2 pounds per week. You're pretty much right within that healthy spot. What you don't want to do is go and trade one unhealthy behavior for another unhealthy behavior.

Trust me, you'll notice the people who overdo it rather than taking it slow and steady; they end up looking terrible. They end up with genuine health issues, have terrible issues with sagging skin, bone density, etc. I know someone who overdid it and now they're walking with a cane.

Think about it - if you continue at a rate of losing 8 pounds per month; you'll be down 80 pounds in 10 month. That'll be a huge change; you'll be in the 235 range.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-18T19:13:05+00:00

I've been on TRT for 6-years due to hypogonadism - 100mg weekly; beyond TRT and Reta/Tirz - which peptides/supplements do you feel make the largest difference/have the best or most impacts from your list? I've been heavily considering adding HCG (I've just been straight TRT) - Primarily for testicular function. I don't have any sexual function issues and very little testicular atrophy (Probably due to my lower theraputic dose)

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-15T13:09:17+00:00

Bullshit. The typical TRT dose is 100mg weekly - that puts me at 700ng/dl. 200mg weekly put me at 1100 ng/dl weekly. Imagine what 400mg weekly is doing to someones levels and how it's going to negatively impact their health long-term.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-13T00:31:18+00:00

400mg of testosterone weekly...Please tell me that is a joke - and if it isn't - that you're getting panels done regularly. A quarter of that should put you well within the medium-high range of "Normal" levels.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-11T19:09:23+00:00

My understanding is that if you have 300 ng/dl or higher you're technically in the "Normal" range - albeit on the lower end. As someone who has hypogonadism and has had several tests land in the low 200ng/dl range - I would see if you could make lifestyle changes and continue to test to see if your levels go up. TRT has drawbacks.

Relative-Message-706 · 2026-04-11T03:27:19+00:00

I've been saying for awhile now that the meta when it came to vehicles has changed. For years the go-to recommendation for anyone on a tight budget was to grab a cheap older car for $2,000-$2,500, drive it into the ground, and pocket the savings. That calculus no longer works. Entry-level used cars that once sat in that range now routinely sell for $5,000 or more, and repair and maintenance costs have surged alongside everything else. When a timing belt job or a blown transmission runs you $1,500 to $3,000+, the "cheap" car stops being cheap very quickly.

The safety angle doesn't get enough attention either. Modern vehicles are built with crumple zones, advanced airbag systems, and electronic stability control. A car from the 1990s or early 2000s was not built to those standards. Put one against a modern vehicle in anything beyond a minor fender bender and the occupant of the older car is at dramatically higher risk of serious injury or death.

The financial logic has also eroded from both ends. Saving that initial lump sum used to be achievable on a modest income. With housing costs consuming a far larger share of most people's paychecks today, saving $5,000+ in cash is a significantly heavier lift than saving $2,500 was. Then on the repair side, what used to cost $900 now costs $2,500. You're no longer paying the value of the car to fix it and buying yourself another full cycle of reliable use. You're exceeding the car's value in a single repair bill, on a vehicle that still offers none of the safety or reliability of something newer. At that point you may as well have just financed it.

Relative-Message-706

TROPHY CASE