Good stuff man, and you're still young, thus you have primarily faced the stigma of gear, ie.LE and gf's and trouble with the parents. For you young guys, that's only half the story. On that path, in another decade, he would be writing about serious health concerns also if he didn't take care of his business correctly.
I spent a few hours last night reading Big A's growth thread in the beginner forum despite being 42, just because I wanted to shake it up a little, and I'm no pro, thus I'm always learning. When he says that the cost of ancillaries, lab tests, liver aids, proper supplements, etc. should be 2 x the cost of gear, think hard about that. I see a lot of what I think are younger guys at times whining about a minimum of $250 or $300 with a sponsor, and I understand there may be times when that's a pain if you just need an ancillary or something, but in reality, most of the time if you're sweating an extra few hundred, I find it hard to believe that most are covering the health aspects of this whole thing correctly with timely lab work and liver aids and comprehensive monitoring.
I consider myself really cautious, and I still found a few things there that I wasn't doing enough, or paying close enough attention to. If you can't afford to do it right, save up, and wait until you can, rather than make a guinea pig of yourself on a budget. I've been a lab test monkey the past few months, because just when I think I have it covered, someone brings up something new to me like C-reactive protein, and I'm testing again, and this is just in preparation for starting up again, as I haven't been on recently. It isn't a game for teenagers, unless you have a trust fund and are far more responsible than I was way back then.
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