The debt is bad enough --- I still wonder how long before Russia or China starts dumping USTs in numbers large enough to cause problems for the US.

I have been wondering that for years but assumed I just was too ignorant in the subject to understand it's variables and dynamics. Still am and still watching and wondering.

I agree with @bee about aspects of the linked book and some of the brief descriptions. There is nothing wrong with prudence in financial matters, and this doesn't necessarily equal to someone being a miser and sad about the their choices.
One may readily discover that aside from the aspects of compounding investments to the positive; that the opposite exists for many people with the compounding of debt to the negative side of personal finance. Tis the same principle.
Prudence and how to create a household budget also allows for a positive learning curve.
Also fully agree with @DrVenture . Knowledge of DIY for whatever may prove to be a wonderful source of money (money not spent, eh?).
The Millionaire Next Door book
--- The book....its not always one's income, but how one's income is spent.
We've presented this book several times over the years as part of a wedding gift.
Remain curious,
Catch

@Old_Joe, i firmly believe that refining rare earth metals can be done in US on commercial scale without changing the existing environment regulations. There are established processes to treat waste created responsibly. Here is where government subsidies can help to defer the manufacturing cost while producing these metal domestically. For national security, this manufacturing capability should be on top of the agenda, not tariffs.
This is exactly what China did 20 years ago in order to grow their own manufacturing capability on multiple fronts.

Agreed. Targeted subsidies, not wholesale tariffs. But that requires realistic thinking and planning, as opposed to expecting the whole world to bow down to economic threats. The same applies to other industries. But carefully considering the available workforce. Tariff should be applied selectively, as needed.

@davidrmoran
My understanding is the federal government has run a surplus only four times
within the last 50 years and the latest surplus was in 2001.
Please share any additional pertinent information you may have.

At least the myth that one party is fiscally responsible can finally be set to rest. Yep, both parties have had a hand in it. We did have a balanced budget in Clinton's time. Then GW tossed it and went on to double the debt during his term. The worst? Reagan. He tripled the national debt in his 8 years.
But, "the other guy did it too" isn't very comforting. Obviously, deficit reduction isn't going to happen in 2025. Even with a $300 billion dollar new tax. That expectation is long gone, along with Elon.

Obs,
If this is very worrisome, why didn't you start a similar thread 1-2-3 years ago?
We all know that the next posts are going to be very political.
Why not use the off-topic forum?

@hank said: "Inflation going down? Tell that to bond traders or the gold market."
... and Walmart.

We all know real inflation; the whole country witnessed it a couple of years ago. It was the highest inflation in 4 decades.

The U.S Farm Report tv program has/is available on a local tv station for about 40 years. I watch the show periodically; as I'm curious about this area of the marketplace for the U.S. and that Michigan has a large agricultural, monetary footprint. I hope to view the program this coming early Saturday morning as to any comments about available data for use by the farmers. They always discuss the economic impacts upon farmers and their ability to remain in business.

I shall hug my large position in RKLB* closely before I go to sleep tonight...
* which is my anti-Musk, anti-SpaceX spec trade that's gone gangbusters for me over the years

Why would you follow Wood?
Her fund AKRR lost money in 5 years and is way down from 2021. See chart.
https://schrts.co/HtmUQPvd

"Gold’s gone crazy. Over 5 years it’s risen from $1900 to $3400.”
Hmmm wonder if rono is selling any here. ”

rono’s pretty smart. I’d imagine he’s already fled the country with his bounty before the government decides to confiscate all bullion and issue owners some form of “digital gold” instead.

"Gold’s gone crazy. Over 5 years it’s risen from $1900 to $3400."
Hmmm, wonder if rono is selling any here.

Short-term / near-term data like this isn’t very helpful. I won’t fault FD for citing it because all of us mention short-term or near-term numbers from time to time, sometimes even noting day-to-day or month-to-month changes in stock averages (guilty as charged).
Inflation going down? Tell that to bond traders or the gold market. While the latter trades a lot on emotion and is very erratic, the trend can’t be mistaken. In both cases (bonds & metals) the trend signals higher, not lower, inflation.
5 years ago investors in the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond were demanding a rate of 0.60% to buy. Now, they’re demanding around 4.40%. That reflects what they think they need to earn from a “risk-free” (not really) investment to keep up with inflation over the next decade. Gold’s gone crazy. Over 5 years it’s risen from $1900 to $3400. And the FX is telling a similar story with a recent fall in the dollar. On this one, the numbers are too recent to define a trend - but my guess is there is an emerging longer-term trend (ominous for inflation).
I’d planned to cite some other commodities, but realized many were so distorted by the Covid period (like oil which got down to under $14) that they’re not worth citing. I won’t play politics. Neither side has an A+ on fighting inflation. And the issue is much more entrenched and complicated than what any one administration can solve. That’s not to argue the present one hasn’t made mistakes.
Are we discussing inflation from an investment perspective (longer-term outlook and how to invest to stay ahead?) or from a political perspective (Has Trump caused more or less inflation than Biden?) The second doesn’t much help me. But the first is very helpful to understanding what funds / assets to own and which ones to avoid.
From a 5-10 year investment perspective - with persistent or higher inflation
Cash? It’s OK. Rates should roughly approximate inflation over time.
Ultra-Short bond funds? Thumbs-up
Longer-dated bonds? Thumbs-down
1-3 year high quality bonds? Even-Steven. Probably OK. I own a slug of NEAR
Junk bonds? Dunno. Don’t play in that park. I’d say to buy them when no one wants them.
TIPS? Yes - With the qualification that they’re best directly held (not jerked around by fund flows). Randall Forsyth has a column in this week’s Barrons highly favorable. Read it.
Cash + bond alternatives (like CVSIX, GDL, LPXAX)? Decent. Worth consideration.
Precious metals? No way at my age. Pretty to look at. But too volatile & risky.
Commodities / “real asset” funds? Yes. But only in moderation. Very cyclical.
“Systematic” multi-asset approaches? - Worth holding as a diversifier. I own BAMBX.
Equities? Depends which ones. I like broadly diversified / balanced funds with an international tilt.
RPSIX? You have to be kidding. Look at its 10-year performance - and with a healthy slug of equities.

Hi @yogibearbull Thank you for the list and updates. The Secure Act 2 for 529's has been discussed here. We've pushed this plan to others for years. And we've recently taken advantage of the Roth rollover twice. This provision is a very nice bump to a young person's retirement program.

@Old_Joe, i firmly believe that refining rare earth metals can be done in US on commercial scale without changing the existing environment regulations. There are established processes to treat waste created responsibly. Here is where government subsidies can help to defer the manufacturing cost while producing these metal domestically. For national security, this manufacturing capability should be on top of the agenda, not tariffs.
This is exactly what China did 20 years ago in order to grow their own manufacturing capability on multiple fronts.

It will take several years of sustained government funding to build this refining capability in an industrial scale (not lab scale). This will take gut if this country want to re-shore manufacturing here.

The only crypto I would touch is Bitcoin and maybe Ether. IMO everything else is junk.
I have a few hundred in BTC that I mess with now and then, but after the Crypto Winter a few years ago (which I escaped from early with all my earnings/winnings, thankfully) I am not rushing to get back into it anytime soon.

@lynnbolin. I have been watching Global Wellesley but have not pulled the trigger because of the almost six year duration of the substantial bond portfolio. With all the uncertainty surrounding the bond market that seems an issue. Your thoughts?

@larryB. In general, estimates of inflation from the Federal Reserve and OECD are that inflation will be above 3% this year and falling slightly next year, while The Conference Board has lower inflation this year and rising next year. Duration risk is a legitimate concern, but it matches the benchmark of 6 years. Secondly, Global Wellesley keeps about 52% invested in corporate bonds which may add a little risk compared to the category. The budget proposal adds to the national debt which is a risk for longer-term US rates. Most of the fixed income that I manage for the intermediate term is in short-term bonds including investment grade.
What I like about Global Wellesley is that only 39% is invested in the US with much of the rest in Europe. 14.4% of the credit is invested in the US government. I bought Global Wellesley for its conservative global exposure.
Here are some associated articles:
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/vgyax/quote
https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/vgyax#portfolio-composition
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-economic-outlook-volume-2025-issue-1_83363382-en.html?adestraproject=Economics Department News&utm_campaign=EO-June2025&utm_content=june-eo-chart&utm_term=eco&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Adestra

We seem to be writing at cross purposes.
You were "looking for earnings-weighted ETFs and found them". I'm looking for reasons to seek out such ETFs, and how well the ETFs you found meet those objectives.
In particular, I'm concerned with the effects of anomalous transient spikes in individual company's earnings. Like "pops" on a vinyl record. Here's a basic description of how a simple low pass filter can help smooth spikes like this:

into signals like this:

https://www.eetimes.com/the-math-of-dsp-part-3-filters/ (See example 1)
Shiller's PE10 does P/E average over 10 years
Shiller looks at diversified markets (e.g. S&P 500) and at sectors, not at individual companies. Merely by using market (or sector) averages he is already smoothing out individual company "pops". He uses 10 (and 20¹) year averaging is to smooth data over full business cycles (10 years serving as a proxy for a business cycle). Different focus, apples and oranges.
https://indices.cib.barclays/dms/Public marketing/Shiller10_brochure.pdf
I agree with your original statement that using earnings exclusively takes valuations out of the picture. I'm still trying to understand why one would want that.
¹ This is the first time I noticed Shiller's use of 10 and 20 year averages. My mind immediately jumped to the Nyquist-Shannon theorem (sampling must be done at at least twice the frequency of a signal being sampled, see 44.1kHz audio sampling). Just an instantaneous pattern recognition; I've given it no thought as to whether it makes sense in this context. Shiller averages PE10 ratios over 20 years to serve as a baseline.

Some observations after going through MFO, June 1, 2025.
@lynnbolin2021: A few years ago, I moved from Wellesley VWINX / VWIAX and VGWIX / VGYAX to Wellington VWELX / VWENX and VGWLX / VGWAX. I used ST- or ultra-ST- bond fund to make appropriate allocation adjustments. Maybe, with higher interest rates, it's time to take another look at Wellesley.

@yogibearbull: You may be interested in the following articles. I have reduced my stock to bond allocation from 67% to 50% over the past nine months or so. Last month, I reduced risk by trading equity funds for the Vanguard Global Wellesley and helped family and friends do the same.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/consider-flipping-your-60-40-portfolio-to-40-60-as-bonds-become-more-attractive-than-stocks-2f0ce96b
https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/corporatesite/us/en/corp/vemo/bonds-remain-favor-time-varying-model-portfolio.html