Soldering iron: a tech's best friend.
A soldering iron can be a tech's best friend. You never know when you need to repair an electrical connection. You can actually do a whole lot more, You can rescue parts for reuse. You can build your own simple test equipment. You can even build your own projects. You do not have to get a fancy soldering iron at first, but later as you gain experience, You may certainly want one. You also will want to learn about electronic symbols so that you can understand at least simple schematics. One of the first pieces of test equipment I ever made was a continuity tester. What is that? it is a tool to see whether a wire cam make a complete circuit. There are no breaks in the wire. Most of what I do is low voltage, so parts are not that critical. To make the continuity tester, I rescued a battery holder (from the motherboard) and an led from a dead computer. Saved a few bucks right there. So a soldering iron can get you free parts! The continuity tester is just...