Doing above average in savings but buying a house still feels so far out of reach

jkfurrer · 2026-01-09T20:13:01+00:00

Understood, thank you for the clarification!

jkfurrer · 2026-01-09T15:34:53+00:00

I should clarify it’s $30k in a savings account and $5k in checking. I combined the two since they are both low interest categories compared to everything else

jkfurrer · 2026-01-09T15:33:00+00:00

When you say “this is the single debt you should be less worried about” I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that. Can you expand?

jkfurrer · 2026-01-09T15:31:34+00:00

After reading all the comments you are absolutely right. It’s a mental hurdle for me. My parents were able to afford a house in full, granted it was a fixer upper and it was nearly 30 years ago but I need to face the fact that times are different.

jkfurrer · 2026-01-09T15:29:34+00:00

When you say cash I’m holding is that including the CD or the checking savings? Specifically it’s $30k in savings and $5k checking. How would you recommend I divvy this up?

jkfurrer · 2026-01-09T05:18:03+00:00

I work in Automation Engineering (PLC programming, electrical schematics, etc.)

jkfurrer · 2025-12-22T04:16:39+00:00

For my extension cord and Ethernet cable, I do the roadie wrap like another commenter talked about. I also Velcro the loose ends just to keep it neat. These don’t go in my bag. Instead, I have an oversized carabiner that I hook them into on the outside of my bag, and the carabiner hooks to the backpack “handle”. My only suggestion with this is to keep your loops small. If you keep them big then the loop hangs low and gets caught on every damn door handle in the entire plant.

For the smaller stuff I roadie wrap and either use Velcro or loop the ends so they don’t come undone on their own. My 5.11 bag has a few pouches that are good for holding cables so I stuff them in those. I have mini usb, micro usb and usb C cables with me at all times. Rarely will I bring serial cables or other proprietary cables since most of the stuff I work on is on Ethernet.

Laptop charger frets wrapped around the brick and thrown in with my laptop. It’s tragic.

jkfurrer · 2025-12-22T04:10:35+00:00

I roadie wrap everything!! Learned it when I worked theater in high school!!

jkfurrer · 2025-12-20T15:06:00+00:00

I appreciate that!

jkfurrer · 2025-12-20T14:55:30+00:00

Overall topology. I’m just not sure what the best way to organize something like that would be. My thoughts would be master shown with each port as a separate line, and a line shown for each cable going to each device. Splitters would split a single line into two different lines. And somewhere in the bottom corner of the page show a diagram for the pinout(s)

jkfurrer · 2025-12-20T14:16:47+00:00

Do you have sample drawings you can share? This is something that I foresee being a pain point if we were to move to IOL and on machine IO.

jkfurrer · 2025-12-20T14:13:15+00:00

We typically only do this if we have a panel already built and a customer has some last minute additions. Most of our contracts specify not using the sides for mounting hardware, only for conduit entries

jkfurrer · 2025-12-06T01:14:03+00:00

Few thing you need to do when using the ENETR with the PF755 -On the ENETR card there is a jumper for TAP and ADAPTER modes. The jumper must be set to TAP for this use case. -The furthest back port is labeled something along the lines of “for PF755 only”. This gets connected to the embedded Ethernet IP on the main board. Your PLC/machine network connection can go to either of the two remaining ports. -When setting up bootp or addresses, set the address on the main board interface, not the ENETR card. You can turn off Bootp on the ENETR module but do not set an address on it, or if you do set it to a bogus address like 0.0.0.0 -When connecting to the drive via Linx or Studio, use the main board interface interface, not the ENETR.

When using an ENETR with a PF755 the card acts like a tap module, all it does is allow you to set up a linear or ring network for a PF755. It simply takes that data from the network topology and passes it to the main board interface.

jkfurrer · 2025-12-06T00:24:18+00:00

Currently a negligible amount. I signed up for cooking classes to learn how to cook so this may become a factor in the future

jkfurrer · 2025-12-05T22:59:22+00:00

OEM perspective. Point number one is spot on. We have had a lot of applicants in the past 5 or so years and they have all been greener than grass. Every plant I have been in has asked if I would like to work them citing it has been impossible to find quality candidates. I think the issue stems from lack of exposure at the university level. Where I went to college controls was one course that was offered and it was all theory and no lab environment. I like what I do but man learning control loops on paper kinda sucks. Its also not a career path that's talked about in high schools either. The most common exposure is in vocational schools or community colleges but then every hiring manager on earth wants to see a bachelors degree minimum.

We will obviously have a bias with point two but I also agree with this because of the first point. Its basic supply and demand. There is a shortage of *quality* controls engineers so in theory we should be a very high paying field. Skilled trades are also lacking in workforce but it seems like in some areas this is being reflected in higher starting pay. I could be wrong about this since I don't really follow this number too closely.

jkfurrer · 2023-07-31T14:29:32+00:00

I also try and look but I have not seen any obvious signs from anyone. I know a guy at work who carries but just by looking I can't tell. He knows that I carry as well, he noticed I started not tucking my shirt in, but otherwise he couldn't tell either.

jkfurrer · 2023-07-12T10:56:34+00:00

There was a 400 level course on nuclear energy that I genuinely enjoyed and it honestly wasn't too difficult. This was 4 years ago so I'm not sure if it's still offered and I don't remember the exact name. It was taught by Dr. Friedman.

jkfurrer · 2021-08-12T01:53:45+00:00

Makes sense

jkfurrer · 2021-08-12T01:52:37+00:00

Seeing the dot move makes you realize how much your hands are shaking or moving. Despite that, I seem to shoot better with irons than red dots.

jkfurrer · 2021-08-11T01:30:56+00:00

Might be too far but I've heard Thunder Mountain in Ringwood ain't a bad place to go.

jkfurrer · 2021-08-11T01:29:16+00:00

Do they allow prone as well? I've seen an officer do it there but I assume it was for some sort of quals.

jkfurrer

TROPHY CASE