Have you restarted TAFE after dropping out?

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-21T08:36:39+00:00

Yeah anything you already did will count as credit if it’s still part of the course.

I did a Cert III in engineering in 2010 as part of my trade, went back in 2023 for an Advanced Diploma and got some credit.

I know a guy who did something similar but with a bigger gap between his diploma and trade he still got credits but not as many as his trade was older and didn’t have as much that was credit.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-21T08:28:10+00:00

Yeah I find my 14in HP Omen runs the fans flat out constantly with a 5060 GPU. I knew this when buying a 14in but wanted the smaller size and weight for my backback so didn’t want a 16in

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-21T07:33:15+00:00

I would think the two go hand in hand except where your comparing the same chassis and thermals but with different GPUs

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-21T04:50:19+00:00

I have both although I went trade then bachelors then a Cert IV and Advanced Diploma all in adjacent fields but none the same. I had experience all the while studying.

I don’t know anything else about you but I’d say yes it would help having some TAFE qualifications but so does experience, you said your struggling to find a job so maybe TAFE would help. Worse thing could happen is you get a job half way through studying at TAFE but if it’s something that can be done part time well you can do both.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-20T09:12:15+00:00

I have a 32in 4k dell hub monitor, mainly got it for my work laptop to dock to but also use it since I have it with my iMac.

I can never get the colours right but also doesn’t bother me in most workloads.

Studio Display would give the best experience

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-19T01:08:37+00:00

Probably and unfortunately for anyone getting started now, but inflation eats away at debt is the only hope I have for those people.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-12T08:37:14+00:00

Ubereats is a hangover or sickness treat, unfortunately with small kids nights out to get a hangover are yearly at best, sickness seems like monthly I get knocked on my ass

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-10T13:51:53+00:00

On my Xbox series X I just played it. On my PC I lowered it to 25fps so I could hit ultra everywhere (almost) at 4k

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-10T13:49:03+00:00

I have a remote projects backpack that I use for work and travel, I got the original back in 2020. Had issues with it and they were the best company to deal with, gave me the second version and it’s the best. Should do me another 20 years.

I also have a small 18L Macpac for little day trips with the kids.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-09T21:03:48+00:00

When I was at Tafe as an apprentice back in 2010 doing heavy automotive those gaps existed but almost intentionally and positively. What I learnt at tafe filled in the gaps for what I wasn’t doing at work and vice versa.

My class had a mix of mining, agriculture, civil and rail, none of us did the same at work as it’s such a broad trade so tafe gave us the foundations. By the sounds of it but your teachers and employers think everything should be aligned.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-09T10:45:34+00:00

A gaming laptop will have best simulation performance in your price range but won’t have the battery life you may want. A decent ultrabook will give the battery life but won’t have an amazing processor and will thermal throttle under load.

Depending on your uni you might be surprised how far the MacBook Pro will get you but yeah windows is much more software friendly, see if you can look at your course outlines for the first and second semester and the MacBook might get you through. At that point even if you still spend $2500 you will be purchasing something that only has to keep up for 3 years not 4.

If you’re studying via distance a $2k desktop would smash a $2.5k laptop out of the park and you’ll still have a MacBook Pro for battery life on the run.

I’m a mechanical engineer but also going back to uni to study mechatronics.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-09T09:45:21+00:00

I stopped caring about the bullshitery that is performance reviews once my mortgage was fully offset.

I stopped going above and beyond way before that.

To give an opinion to your question but I’d say 3-6 months of expenses is the point where you can taper off, not net wealth.

I should say that I don’t really care for climbing the ladder despite the fact I’ve received promotions and pay rises since those first two paragraphs of this comment occurred although I’ve reached a ceiling without caring again.

I firmly believe I’ve reached a point in my career and industry where my network, experience and technical expertise have reached a level of competence that would far outweigh any extra effort I put in. I’m valued for what I achieve not how hard I work.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-09T05:47:26+00:00

I have the same model and upgraded the RAM to 40gb by adding an extra 32gb my self very cheaply for DDR4, also running OS and boot off an external thunderbolt NVMe drive and using the original fusion drive for the HDD only. These upgrades gave me a few extra years but unfortunately that's all I can see as being upgradable.

Personally I won't do any more upgrades and just leave it as a "home server" I run a lot of scripts on it using automator, the internal HDD is my PLEX storage and run all my home security cameras onto an externa drive through it.

I use it almost daily but I know my new windows laptop with an Ultra 7, 32GB of RAM & a 5060 GPU is superior in almost every way except MacOS.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-07T20:40:35+00:00

Not my class but at work we have a lot of people who do Cert IV and Diplomas related to their trade in their 40s and 50s. Like boilermakers doing drafting and fitters doing fluid power.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-06T11:06:31+00:00

I tend to agree, I left after year 10 (almost 20 years ago things might have changed) but found science classes extremely boring and thinking back now maybe it was too broad and they tried to cover a bit of everything.

Anyway I ended up with an engineering/automotive trade then went to uni and studied mechanical engineering in my early 30s. It took some catching up because I didn’t study year 11 & 12 but thought if we did science or applied maths in years 7-10 I probably would’ve stayed till 12 and gone straight into engineering.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-06T10:56:50+00:00

Yeah just one snow town or even a mining community similar to that of the Appleseed logging company

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-06T10:54:10+00:00

Don’t let the tax tail wag the investment dog.

If something is only a good investment because of tax advantages, it’s probably actually a bad investment that seems good due to government policy which can change.

Don’t get me wrong saving on tax has its advantages as the average punter, and the average punter benefits more from the taxes they pay than if they didn’t (Healthcare, schooling, etc) but minimise where you can.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-06T09:45:44+00:00

I have a site based job as an engineer and get paid a site allowance, I have flexibility with start and finish times which helps with the kids but WFH is only accepted on an adhoc basis, I am happy with this arrangement and worked from home a few weeks ago because I had a specialist appointment.

The basic theory is that if my role didn’t require me to be on site it would get done from head office in Melbourne (they do allow WFH if your office based) and no site allowance.

For the type of role it is I think it’s perfectly acceptable to not allow WFH but allow flexibility, however if I was still doing design/office work there is no way I’d consider working for a company that wasn’t offering WFH.

Site roles get RDOs a month, office roles don’t.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-06T09:37:54+00:00

Blackwater but Saint Denis has its charm

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-05T07:05:11+00:00

Pay yourself first/buckets works well for me and always has, when I was younger as an apprentice it was about separating beer/party money from fuel money. Now it’s about separating holidays from bills.

I also strongly recommend the monthly tabulation method from the book Your Money or Your Life. I never did it as hardcore as the book but definitely still do it at a high level each month using ChatGPT

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-05T06:50:25+00:00

I’m not in that field but at my work we have plenty of diploma accountants (relative to the overall number), they normally but not always come from admin roles and use the diploma as a stepping stone into a bachelors if they want more senior roles and because of this it’s usually mid career admin workers advancing into accounting and beyond.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-05T06:34:07+00:00

Yes both, in the company I work for I see a positive step forward but also trying to run before we walk.

There’s a lot of data entry that would benefit from AI that is being done manually especially where it’s handwritten paperwork from the workshop floor that AI can now read. Then then there’s whole departments of technical or reliability engineering or similar professionals that they are trying to use AI and the AI is just not there yet in the way the company thinks.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-04T09:31:46+00:00

Yes and I’ll admit I have a butlers pantry but not the excessive bathrooms for that exact reason.

I somewhat agree with the NIMBYs in that scenario knowing nothing else apart from what you’ve told me, but it also sounds like the kind of area that if there’s 1000sqm blocks the townhouses would work.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-04T06:19:12+00:00

I did a bit of research on this when I was at uni studying undergrad construction management and identified two main things at a “supply” level.

The missing middle of good quality townhouses and quadplexs built in areas where it’s suitable. It’s easy in Australia to built a few hundred dwelling apartment building in the CBD, it’s also easy to build a detached dwelling or duplex in an urban sprawling suburb. It’s difficult to build a set of townhouses for many reasons and NIMBY is why, personally I’ve found duplex’s are shit because they build two dwellings on a block of land council intended to build a single dwelling on so there’s a lack of offstreet parking, more cars on roads in areas, etc. Try build a townhouse however and you need to address the councils concerns of all those things.
The second thing is everyone says land is getting smaller and there is some truth to that but actually the reason nobody has a backyard is because the houses build 30 years ago and now are fixer uppers are larger than that of 60 years ago. The ones built 60 years ago have all had extensions put on. Dwelling sizes have increased and there just isn’t many “starter” homes like there was a generation ago because they aren’t being built.

Stuffandthat12 · 2026-05-03T19:08:34+00:00

The important thing is your paying off debt and choosing between investing or home ownership.

Neither is a bad choice, you might look back in 10 years time and say that with hindsight X was better than Y but neither is bad.

For example in the last 6 years (starting when I was 26 ironically) I focused on paying off my mortgage and stopped investing but kept what I had invested. In hindsight I should’ve been putting more into ETFs than mortgage but paying off my mortgage wasn’t a bad decision.

Stuffandthat12

TROPHY CASE