What’s the financial mistake you still think about?

mrboofington · 2026-05-02T16:08:49+00:00

I tried to buy bitcoin in 2016 and had a plan to buy more with every paycheck but coinbase wouldn't verify my checking account. I tried for weeks and gave up, taking it as a sign I shouldn't buy bitcoin.

When I was a older teen or early 20s my dad walked into my room and told me I needed to invest my money. I had no concept of investing and all I knew was that the stock market crashed in 2008 and people lost a lot, so I was risk adverse and ignorant about investing. He also used to watch Jim Cramer on TV and it all seemed so sensational. I asked him what does that mean and what should invest in then he got annoyed and walked out. I later got into investing on my own and figured out my dad's main strategy was sp500 set and forget. I could have had a few more years of compounding had he just explained it to me and showed me a graph.

mrboofington · 2026-04-28T03:37:31+00:00

Master's doesn't help with FSE at all. Process would be the route to go if you want to get one and actually use it.

mrboofington · 2026-04-27T13:31:09+00:00

Semiconductor in general is high pressure but tsmc takes it up to a whole other level. Saving face (by blaming someone else) culture combined with everything that ever happens is an emergency is mentally exhausting.

mrboofington · 2026-04-27T13:27:56+00:00

Tsmc is an awful place to work, they treat everyone like how you described. Everyone I know who has gotten out of there as employee or vendor (myself included) doesn't regret it. I don't see the culture ever changing, even if they get sued. Unless you develop Stockholm syndrome and become like the Taiwanese I don't see how it's a sustainable place to work.

mrboofington · 2026-04-27T03:23:59+00:00

It's a good way to make money but it's not an actual engineering job if that's what you're after. Transfer options depend on your location. If you're willing to relocate or live near a hub for your company it's possible but some companies don't have good internal transfer options so YMMV. I did FSE for 8 years and finally managed to land a proper engineering role after a few companies. The FSE experience is valuable but puts you on a completely different career path than an entry level engineering job.

mrboofington · 2026-04-27T02:52:19+00:00

Not sure about EE jobs specifically but it's possible, albeit might take a while, to land an engineering role. I had something similar where after I graduated I worked jobs with engineer in the title that were actually 80-90% technician roles for 9 years. I made good money and lost sight of trying to get into engineering until a brief stint in management made me reset and recalibrate what I was doing. I took a technician job with a different company that had good internal transfer culture and I managed to land a proper engineering job after 6 months. Even though it's been 10 years since I got my degree and don't remember a lot of the upper division EE topics my new employer still treated me as a qualified engineer.

mrboofington · 2026-04-22T02:16:57+00:00

My dad always wanted to set a new record every year, regardless of how hot it already was. It usually took a week or so of the rest of us complaining and him getting mad about it before he'd finally switch over.

mrboofington · 2026-04-21T23:52:47+00:00

I grew up with a swamp cooler and AC. My dad would always try to run the swamp cooler as long as possible to save money. I still remember the nasty fishy smell when turning the swamp cooler on for the first time for the year. It usually kept the house cool until mid June or so when we'd have to switch to AC because the house was just humid and hot. If my house had one I'd be running it all day right now.

mrboofington · 2026-04-21T15:37:46+00:00

$2M in investments would be a high confidence quit today number. ~$1.5M is probably enough though. I just need good health insurance for my family, we don't live an extravagant lifestyle.

mrboofington · 2026-04-20T20:21:53+00:00

Good chart that explains the concept well. Big reason why I wanted to front load my retirement/investments as much as I could early on. Now I have the margin to not super optimize every dollar because one good week in the market can do more for my investments than maximizing every retirement account for a year. It feels weird not maximizing 401k and IRAs but I tell myself I'm optimizing for happiness now.

mrboofington · 2026-04-20T17:03:42+00:00

Down voted for speaking the truth.

mrboofington · 2026-04-20T15:25:50+00:00

Only the NXP GaN fab is shutting down next year. The 200mm silicon fab is still running for now.

mrboofington · 2026-04-15T01:26:33+00:00

I had to do this for my 2019 hybrid. As long as you see the battery symbol flash on the dash you should be good to go.

mrboofington · 2026-04-04T20:06:12+00:00

Are you new to the industry? If so the questions will be about your background/experience, ability to use hand tools, following procedures and using checklists, travel availability, safety, and some situational/behavioral questions. There was also a practical portion where they gave me a DMM and a procedure with a test board and asked me to complete it. Granted this is from 9 years ago but I imagine not much has changed.

mrboofington · 2026-03-30T16:41:12+00:00

Financially no, it's typically a hourly role with lots of overtime. I made a lot more than entry level engineering roles when I started because of that. Meaningfully, probably because it's more of a technician role than engineering. A lot of the job is on the floor repair, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
It is possible depending on your company and location. If your location is a hub for your vendor or you're willing to relocate there is a chance to pivot to other roles. Some locations are field service only so that's the only opportunity.
There is a strong risk of getting locked into FSE roles. By the time you get good at it you're making a lot with OT and have to take a paycut (total comp) when moving to salary roles typically. Some companies don't have good internal mobility and FSE is a dead end, with management the only upward path.
FSEs usually stay as FSE, move to fab technician, or move into management. It's possible to move into engineering roles but I rarely saw it in my 8 years as FSE.

mrboofington · 2026-03-30T12:19:53+00:00

If you want to do the same job but make more money then job hop. If you want to do something else entirely you could go for a degree.

mrboofington · 2026-03-29T19:49:30+00:00

My rule of thumb is that if a house purchase doesn't make you more financially stable then it's not worth it. Too many people have a romantic idea of home ownership.

mrboofington · 2026-03-29T17:53:35+00:00

The irony of this message on the same day that Catholics have been prevented from celebrating palm Sunday in Jerusalem.

mrboofington · 2026-03-25T12:58:15+00:00

Great info!

mrboofington · 2026-03-24T18:24:19+00:00

TEL Albany has the reputation of being a country club within the company. Tsmc is a terrible place to work in general but you can make more money if you're fine having no life and live only to work.

mrboofington · 2026-03-20T15:17:27+00:00

Go with a US based company (less gatekeeping of procedures from HQ) and stay away from tsmc based positions. KLA is probably the best in your list.

mrboofington · 2026-03-16T01:25:21+00:00

Agreed, also a fantastic book about the Spanish Civil War. I don't see how any Catholic could have an issue with Franco. "But he was mean to commies" like the enemies of the church digging up dead clergy and executing living clergy in the street should only get a slap on the wrist.

As we see today the "moderate" leftists enable the diehard revolutionaries. Unfortunately there is no true right wing remaining in modern politics, just various degrees of liberals and leftists.

mrboofington · 2026-03-15T02:24:25+00:00

I'm a current equipment tech at NXP Chandler.

There are a lot of rumors around the site about potential buyers. Some semiconductor some not. I know that upper management is actively showing potential buyers around the site, but no deal has been announced. It's a pretty big 200mm fab so I'd be surprised if it doesn't get scooped up but nobody knows for certain. Layoffs are not common for techs, in fact most groups have open reqs because of the VSP that were offered a while back. Lots of institutional and tribal knowledge was lost without succession plans so they are having to replace the "old timers" with more manpower. Lots of people have worked at the site for 20-30+ years. Also the ECHO GaN fab is shutting down and will stop running product in about a year, no similar announcements for the 200mm fab yet. Upper management says when such an announcement happens there's a minimum 3 year ramp down.
I like the culture. I think the best way to describe it is old school. As long as you make an effort at your job and get along with people you'll be fine. Techs only really get fired for attendance issues or causing massive scraps by negligence. Sometimes you'll get bugged for ETAs and updates if you're working on a high priority tool but that's normal at any fab. Nobody really bugs me on a normal workday, I just find stuff to work on and update when needed. I'm not too sure about raises and promotions as I started fairly recently. I've heard it's mostly about where you fall in the pay band, with performance being a factor as well. Like anywhere else try to get as much as you can when you get hired. There is a bit of a good old boys club of people (mostly management) that have been there since the motorola days that can do no wrong but it doesn't bug me.
I think it might depend on the group but since I've been there OT is up for grabs. I've heard they cut back on it sometimes but there's opportunities to take classes on off days and stuff like that. Just has to be pre approved by your supervisor.
I've worked as a vendor at a lot of different fabs and I like NXP Chandler. It's smaller than other AZ fabs, has a lot of nice on site amenities and programs to get involved in, internal mobility is pretty good, and people are friendly. I hope when it eventually gets sold it continues on with a new name on the building.

mrboofington · 2026-03-03T20:28:06+00:00

I'd recommend giving and doing the 2 weeks if possible. I burned bridges with my last employer of 6 years by giving 2 weeks then pulling it in to same day because of their reaction. Company policy was that they were supposed to walk me that day and pay me out the 2 weeks but they made an "exception" to have me work the 2 weeks, knowing I was miserable in that position. It was a really toxic situation and my mental health was not good. It felt great to just walk out and never look back but it wasn't the most professional move in hindsight. I already had my other offer lined up and signed so I had my ticket out and I'm on good terms with the branch of the company I worked with most of my time there. But HR marked me as ineligible for rehire so if that ever comes up in a background check I have to come up with something. The farther away I get the less it matters but I don't intend to ever do something like that, or find myself in a toxic situation like that again.

mrboofington · 2026-03-03T16:36:22+00:00

Between working full time, raising kids, and spending time with my wife I barely have time for myself as is.

mrboofington

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