The nature of free/competitive market is that NOTHING stays at top forever. Well, maybe, Fido HSA that has ranked #1 in over a half-dozen years that I have been watching.
Brokerages have their pros and cons. I can say this because I have accounts at 3 brokerages - Schwab, Fido, and (involuntarily) Vanguard.

@chinfist,
"Every time frame I have looked at (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, and 5 years) RPHIX has outperformed USFR. Expense ratios can be important, but ultimately don’t matter if the returns after the expense ratio are better." [bold added]
Preaching to the choir. I probably pay least attention to ERs than most. But in the context of this thread of stashing cash and cash equivalents, a 1% ER should not be overlooked.
Each subsequent question in my post is in the context of the prior question. Answering the last question independently is inevitably out of context. If RPHIX is currently preferred over USFR, then it should be preferred over MM funds (and any 3 month (or any 1-6 month) Treasury bills) that @Chang owns.
Sorry, I do not have more time to elaborate (and not interested in debating). If you currently like the fund, enjoy it, I am not asking you to sell.
My post was trying to get more color from @chang (whose post was right above my post - I neglected by not directly addressing it to him), as to why he is using RPHIX as a cash equivalent.
There was a time when people were posting about using PIMIX as a cash sub. So, everyone has their own reasons. However, David Sherman was clear RPHIX is not a MM (cash) substitute.

Since GLD inception 11-18-2004 recent history:
CAGR SPY 10.07% VBINX 60/40 7.38% and GLD 8.52%.

Interesting. Since inception GLD has done a little better on average than VBINX. However, VBINX’s inception date is about 12 years earlier (1992).
I agree with FD that gold hasn’t been a good investment compared to stocks. Can’t give you a good reason to own it. It does receive some attention from the financial press and is held by many central banks. There have been brief periods over the years where it outperformed many other investments. Very pretty stuff to look at I think. But that’s in the eyes of the beholder.
Possibly of interest - Costco selling as much as $200 million in gold bars monthly

"It’s been just fantastic watching the evolution of technology over my 78 years"
For sure. At around 10 yrs old I started getting interested in electronics... it was all vacuum tube technology then, of course. I learned all of the basics from the RCA Tube Manual, which was reprinted every year with the latest technology updates. The front section of that manual contained a concise textbook on the basics of vacuum tube technology, and the rear section contained diagrams and parts lists to build lots of interesting stuff that actually worked quite well.
At 18-21 yrs I was an electronics tech in the US Coast Guard, still using the very latest in vacuum tubes, but reading here and there about some marvelous new thing called a "transistor" being developed by Bell Labs.
At 35 yrs there was a new RCA Transistor Manual, which contained concise sections on understanding and building solid-state technology. Transistor radios were really cool.
At 45 yrs I was working for SF Public Safety, and we still had a small amount of very antiquated vacuum tube radio equipment. I was one of the two technicians there who actually knew how to service that stuff. All of the other techs knew only the "solid state" electronics which constituted almost all of our communications equipment.
At 55 yrs we began to see the first inroads of the latest/greatest communications gear now using computers, microprocessors, and this new thing called "software". I was the first in our shop to buy an Apple Mac+, which I used to design the then-new 911/Public Safety Dispatch Center in San Francisco.
At 63 yrs I became the first in our shop to use a newly installed system to centrally monitor and control all of our many remote radio and communications sites, and enhanced that system to include many operations not originally contemplated. That system is similar to those now in wide use to control electrical distribution, water, oil, and gas pipelines, and other public utility systems. Many of those systems are under constant threat from hacking attacks by bad actors. In SF we saw that coming, and while using essentially the same type of technology, no part of our public safety system has any interconnection with the internet.
At 65 yrs I said "enough", and retired. No smart phone, thank you. No wonderful apps to let me do almost anything, including getting hacked every other day by some new bad guys. One stupid flip-phone to use voice and text. A bunch of decent Mac computers to let me do almost anything that I need to, with, so far at least, nothing being hacked.
Now at 85 yrs that's the story of my personal evolution of technology, and I'm quite happy with it.

What purpose is RPHIX currently serving in a portfolio? Perhaps, looking for active management in anticipation of drop in yields at the short end? But at 1% ER? I think @WABAC or some one else already commented recently about this high ER. Also, one can see why @rforno’s complains about high ER on some money market funds.
YTD, USFR has kept up with RPHIX with lower volatility. I will be surprised if there are not MM with lower volatility and similar 3 mo return as RPHIX.

Every time frame I have looked at (1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, and 5 years) RPHIX has outperformed USFR. Expense ratios can be important, but ultimately don’t matter if the returns after the expense ratio are better.

@Sven - Naw - No apology necessary. I can’t speak for others on how they use technology. Just wanted to make clear I’m not anti-technology - except for not wanting to carry a “live” telephone in my pocket everywhere I go.
It’s been just fantastic watching the evolution of technology over my 78 years. I used to have to compute grades for kids on a big loud clunky mechanical adding machine. Took hours and hours after work at the end of a marking period. Then in about 1975 I bought a simple plug-in desktop calculator at Montgomery Ward for around $100. What a marvel it was. Made my job so much easier. Later - probably in the 80s - I purchased a Commodore VIC-20, my first computer. Fun to play with but close to useless for anything except playing games. Bought an Apple 2-e sometime after that. Big leap. Than in the early 90s my employer bought us all an IBM computer that ran Microsoft. (The trade-off was that we had to commit to a number of hours of in-service training after work.) On and on it goes …
Take care Sir

DIfferent strokes for different folks.
Geographic proximity will vary from person to person. There's a Schwab office just a five minute walk away from me. (The walk to Fidelity is about an hour, i.e. 3 miles, but it takes me over a national landmark, with views of a national monument and a local landmark.) More important to me is that Fidelity will notarize papers for me and give me a medallion stamp on the spot while the Schwab office doesn't have a notary on staff and sends papers to its back office for medallion stamps.
I opened a Vanguard taxable account precisely for access to a MMF, specifically VUSXX. SNSXX pay ¼% less, while FDLXX with a whopping 42 basis point ER isn't even yielding 5%. Vanguard isn't and has never been my preferred brokerage, but it has offered fund products I could not match elsewhere.
Years ago I (re)opened a Schwab account because of its (then) high interest checking account that provided an ATM card with no foreign exchange fees and full rebates. As with Vanguard, that's not something that would make Schwab my preferred brokerage, but at the time it was enough to get me in the door.
What Schwab did right was reduce the mins on lots of funds (including institutional share classes). There's often a reduced min at Fidelity as well for institutional shares within IRAs, but you wouldn't know this without an account where you can make test trades. The downside at Schwab is that each purchase will cost $49.95 (or more), while Fidelity usually charges $5 when investing "automatically".
Someone pointed out to me that Schwab also has an automatic investment system for funds. But when I called Schwab on Friday to ask about this, I was told that the only funds that are eligible for auto invest are NTF funds. (Perhaps the rep was mistaken?)
When I explained that I was looking around for a VBS replacement, the rep asked for contact info so that he could send me some information. He would also have my local office contact me to provide an overview of services. I agreed and will see what I hear from them soon.

Gold has been mentioned on/off for years. It has been a bad investment over a long term and if you are a good trader why use it?

@hank, I sincerely apologized if I came across of looking down on the posters here with respect to technology. But I am not. For sure, the internet age has enabled us to become better and well informed investors. I am typing on my iPad now but that is something I would do on my desktop Mac 10 years ago. One day when Siri would able to take diction accurately and that be another level of communicating.
We love our smart phones and they are ubiquitous in our daily. We view them as a tool and not being enslaved by them. Guess everyone have have different level of usage and sharing, thus our experience differ. We don’t use social media, Twitter and social media in order to avoid being overloaded. Hope this help to explain where I am coming from. Again, I apologize.

All I'm going to say is that Schwab reps have been waiving my I share fees for over 7 years. I'm not going to tell you how. It's not a policy you will find anywhere, just as they will match other brokers offers for cash rewards when you transfer money.
I ask for the moon and get a lot.
Schwab only charges one time fee to buy, never to sell, just as Fidelity.
Another example, I did a lot of guestimating how much we should convert from TIRA to Roth, but I wanted to see if I can get it from Schwab. My rep told me they can do. They assigned me a very knowledgeable person from their wealth management and that guy told me he has done this more than 10 years, they wanted $300, I said I will pay nothing, they agreed. We spend several hours collecting info, running his tools, and analysis.

Fidelity since 1986. Always been the best, still the best. I had a Schwab acct for a couple of years (a few years ago); the customer service was awful.

Try and spot someone who doesn’t have a cellphone / iphone in their hand.
Ooh, ooh, me, me :-) I don't usually use mobile phones, smart or otherwise.
Though I have to admit that having a mini-computer (no SIM) in my hand for guidance did recently help me walk to Starbucks in various German towns. (We collect Starbucks mugs in cities we have visited.)

At our age we have to consider that we won't be able to find a pay phone if we get in a jam driving around.
My wife's vehicle broke down yesterday outside of exurban Albuquerque. It would have been a tougher situation for her without the cell phone.
Years ago, before kids, we never worried about stuff like that. And we were a little more resilient then,

VMRXX: 5.28% SEC yield + 0.10% ER = 5.38% gross yield
VMFXX: 5.27% SEC yield + 0.11% ER = 5.38% gross yield
Vanguard taxable MMF table
For more safety (backed by full faith and credit of Treasury), VUSXX has a gross yield that's a basis point lower. Repos (used by the other funds) are overcollateralized with government securities but are not directly backed by the government.

The role of MMFs as cash investors in repos has increased over the last 20 years. One reason for the increase is the growth of assets under management in government MMFs, which are required to invest at least 99.5% of their assets in cash, U.S. government securities, or repos collateralized by cash and government securities.

https://www.sec.gov/files/mmfs-and-repo-market-021721.pdf

At Schwab $1.00 minimum. SWVXX 1 YEAR +5.27. Their prime money market, should be similar to VMRXX.

SWVXX is not currently paying 5.27%--it resets every 7 days, and is currently paying 5.16%. Its rate has been dropping for about the past 2 months. SNAXX is the Institutional Class counterpart, that is currently paying 5.3%, but requires $1 million investment to purchase it. If you intend to buy any MMkt rate currently, it is highly unlikely it will stay that high for the next 12 months, given the recent performance trend of it going lower. Everyone has an opinion, that may or may not be accurate, but I think MMkt rates will drop around .5% over the course of the next 12 months.

You may be right. How I handle this is while putting a good chunk of the income segment of my portfolio in money market funds, I have also put money into bond funds rather than CDs, so if money market yields go down from interest rates going down, bond funds (at least investment grade) will go up in value. I had been buying CDs starting a few years ago, once they matured I put them into money market funds and bond funds (some investment grade, some multisector or high yield). I now prefer the flexibility of money in money market funds and not locked into a CD, and my bond funds have exceeded what I would have received in CDs. If anything, a good substitute for a CD would be the ETF MINT (and not be locked in) or a good short term bond fund. I could turn out to be wrong, but that’s what I have been doing.

I don't know how long I will emphasize CDs, but for now, I will take advantage of CDs in an 18 month ladder. If CD rates deteriorate, I have a sizeable number of CDs maturing throughout 2025, and will reserve the option of reinvesting those proceeds into something different--I will cross that bridge when I get to it. I like CD ladders, as I always have a CD maturing every few months, giving me ongoing cash availability for adjustments in my investing options. I have historically invested in bond oefs, since I retired--I can always return to that option if necessary, but I will ride the cd horse as long as rates stay high.

At Schwab $1.00 minimum. SWVXX 1 YEAR +5.27. Their prime money market, should be similar to VMRXX.

SWVXX is not currently paying 5.27%--it resets every 7 days, and is currently paying 5.16%. Its rate has been dropping for about the past 2 months. SNAXX is the Institutional Class counterpart, that is currently paying 5.3%, but requires $1 million investment to purchase it. If you intend to buy any MMkt rate currently, it is highly unlikely it will stay that high for the next 12 months, given the recent performance trend of it going lower. Everyone has an opinion, that may or may not be accurate, but I think MMkt rates will drop around .5% over the course of the next 12 months.

You may be right. How I handle this is while putting a good chunk of the income segment of my portfolio in money market funds, I have also put money into bond funds rather than CDs, so if money market yields go down from interest rates going down, bond funds (at least investment grade) will go up in value. I had been buying CDs starting a few years ago, once they matured I put them into money market funds and bond funds (some investment grade, some multisector or high yield). I now prefer the flexibility of money in money market funds and not locked into a CD, and my bond funds have exceeded what I would have received in CDs. If anything, a good substitute for a CD would be the ETF MINT (and not be locked in) or a good short term bond fund. I could turn out to be wrong, but that’s what I have been doing.

@sma3 & @Sven
I have been fortunate in my life time to have made several trips into the BWCA (or BWCAW as it's labeled now). A handful of those trips were made well before cell phones or even SAT phones were in existence. To me the BWCA is called a 'wilderness area' for a reason and you accept that knowing that it's the price you pay for admission. I go there to escape all of societies(?) conveniences and to experience life by one's skills, wits and knowledge. It's glorious.
I can see where it gives many pause however and just within the last month SAT phones were used to summon Search & Rescue assistance for two groups of canoeists HERE. The first ended tragically while the second fared better. My guess is that many more SAT phones will be rented out to canoeing parties in the coming years.
As for cell and/or smart phones, I've always left mine in my vehicle upon entry. Cell service in the BWCA is very spotty at best and most definitely should not be relied upon. Smart phones are good for taking great photo's though and they tend to be small and light weight.

I must be an outlier on this board. I fully embrace new technology that makes our lives easier. Thus we own smart phones, tablets and many more. We use them but not being consumed by them. AI is not new and it is already being used in manufacturing such as robotic welding of car frames. Self-driving cars still requires further refinement in their AI in order to be fully safely operated on the roads.
During the pandemic, these devices made our connection to friends and families so much easier and safer. Our kids were able to see and talk on weekly basis with their 90 years old grandparents through FaceTime. Will see one of the grandparent this summer. The other one passed away a year ago, but we still have those memory.
@sma3, we envy your new canoeing adventure. Many folks have great time navigating the wildness using the tried and true method with maps and compass. The other challenge is the mosquitoes that the Boundary Water is known for.

@sma3, thank you for sharing your experience with Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard brokerages. I think it is a crapshoot of which agents you deal with and that set the tone on whether that firm works for you or not. These days there are high turnovers in the financial business. Planners I talk with have less than 10 years of experience. We are working on Plan B so that my wife can handle the finance without advisors when I pass on.
Like you I also subscribed to "No Load Fund Analyst" for a number of years until they retired that business. Rather than using an advisor early on, we spent time learning about asset allocation from William Bernstein's books. NLFA became the tool to implement the target allocation in our portfolio and the value of active management. This process has proven invaluable as we survived the severe drawdowns during the dotcom and GFC crisis, and we became more informed investors and asking the right questions.
We have been DIY investors ever since. Until last year I explored using financial advisors to manage part of our portfolio. Vanguard is reasonable with 0.3% fee but the choices are limited to Vanguard products only. Think that is the same with most brokerages. This experiment ended as we moved on from Vanguard.
Fidelity offers their advisory services and I will talk with them to better understand their capabilities now that I had experience with Vanguard.

We can add property tax to this list of auto/home insurance costs. With home prices skyrocketing the last couple years assessments are also going up quite a bit. I might get a 10%+ property tax increase this year. Not looking forward to the coming tax bill.

This is really strange... I was a radio/communications tech for San Francisco Emergency Services, and for twenty years carried a $2000 high-end Motorola radio which allowed me access to a fantastic world of public safety information in real time.
After retiring I refused to even own a "smartphone". We do have one stupidphone though, and that's it. Everywhere we go it seems that almost everyone has their head buried in their smartphones... it's almost like a surreal scene from some science-fiction novel where everyone is being controlled by some evil entity.
What's seems strange is that evidently a fair number of MFO people feel pretty much the same way. I like it here... very comfortable with the MFO community. (Well, maybe except for certain baseball fans.)