Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Recycled Silver Investors are continually bombarded with stories that metal production is not meeting demand and as a result, big shortages and skyrocketing prices are the future. Silver is a good example. The amount of product coming out of the mines has not kept up with demand for the last 5 years. The problem with these numbers, is they conveniently leave out the heavy influence that recycled silver has on the supply/demand equation. It accounts for 20% of total supply. As prices rise, more and more people are pulling out grandma's old silverware and cashing them in at the local scrapyard. When you include recycling in the equation, metal shortages are less bullish for prices than often portrayed. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Beyond the Magnificent Seven All investors want to talk about is Artificial intelligence, data centres and computer chips. It is like nothing else exists….but it does. European banks, for example, have outperformed America's Magnificent Seven over not just one, but the last five years. Many markets in Asia, Europe and even South America beat the US last year. People think American technology is the centre of the known universe and limit themselves to a very small investment pool of securities. There are lots of unnoticed global companies that have done extraordinarily well, and are far less expensive than the Magnificent Seven. They are worth a look. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Silver Profits If you want to understand why silver stocks have gone crazy, just look at the math. Last year silver prices averaged about $28 an ounce, and it cost about $20 an ounce to pull the metal out of the ground. At those prices, silver miners were making money, but no one was getting rich. Fast forward one year, and we find that production costs haven't changed much, but the selling price of silver has tripled. Companies who kept their costs in line, have seen profit margins increase by 9 times. This is an industry that has gone from so so - to printing money … and silver mining stocks have moved right along with them. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Sport Betting Fraud One of the risks of sports betting is fraud, and it has just raised its ugly head. The US recently charged 20 people for operating a betting ring that fixed US College and Chinese Professional basketball games. This group bribed players between $10,000 and $30,000 to deliberately underperform in order for their teams to lose and for fraudulent bets to pay off. This point-shaving scheme involved 17 NCAA Division I programs, 39 players, and 29 games that prosecutors say were fixed or attempted to be fixed from 2022 through 2025. If you sports bet, fraud is always a risk. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Gambling Is Not Investing The lines between gambling and investing are becoming more and more blurred. In the US there are now platforms that let you bet on the outcome of a football game and then with the proceeds turn around and trade your favorite stock - all on one site. Yet gambling and investing are very different activities. Betting on who will win the next election or whether the Oilers become Stanley Cup champions is entertainment. Investing is putting money into wealth building assets that generate cashflow and profit over the longer term. Mixing the two and blurring their distinction is a very bad idea. For more information listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Currency Risk The Trump administration has made it very clear that one of its major economic goals is to lower the value of the US dollar against other countries currencies. Devaluation is often used by nations to reduce the cost of their exports and make prices more competitive on global markets. So far Trump's strategy seems to be working, as the US greenback is down about 10% over the last year. For Canadian investors who own US assets - this is another risk. As the US dollar drops, so does the value of those American investments. Diversification outside the Canadian economy is a good idea, but large currency loses can certainly blunt those advantages. For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - 24 Hour Stock Trading If you are a working stiff who likes to manage your own investment portfolio, one of the drawbacks, has always been the hours the stock and bond markets are open for trading. That 6 1/2 hour window generally coincides with when most us are at work. This makes it difficult to access markets on a timely basis, when we are distracted by, or busy with, work related tasks. This will soon change. The Nasdaq Index in the US, is applying for permission to trade 23 ours a day on weekdays starting later in 2026. Expect other exchanges to follow shortly. For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Natural Gas & Data Centres When data centres were just starting to roll out, the strategy was to determine a location and worry about the energy needed to run them later. Well that dynamic has changed. Growing demand for electricity means you have to secure supply first and build near it. Your billion dollar data centre will sit idle if it doesn't have the juice to run it. This is where Alberta has a huge advantage. We have a surplus, of the ideal fuel for data centres. Natural gas can provide consistent low cost power. This can be a huge economic win for the province. For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Home Affordability Canada has a housing affordability crisis. Thankfully it only involves about 30% of the population and is focussed in two main areas - Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto. In Vancouver it takes 89% of a households income to cover home ownership costs. In Toronto that figure is 65%. Beyond this tiny geographic area there are plenty of places to live in Canada where the job market is solid and homeownership costs are reasonable. In Montreal home ownership costs average 49% of household income, in Ottawa 44%, in Calgary 41% and in Edmonton 32%. A simple solution to home affordability, is to move to where the bargains are. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Oil Price Sweet Spot Oil prices are in the goldilocks zone of not to high, and not to low, but seemingly just right. NATO countries like current prices because it puts the squeeze on Russia's war financing. Saudi Arabia likes it because as a low cost producer, it allows them to increase market share. Trump likes it for taking some of the inflationary pressure off consumers caused by his high tariffs. China and India like today's prices, because it lowers their manufacturing costs, and makes their exports more competitive. Prices are in a sweet spot. Producers are making money, while consumers are getting a break. For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Government Bonds & Risk Investors historically preferred to own government bonds over corporates because of their perceived creditworthiness and low default risk. In many cases that perception is a thing of the past. Governments have taken on staggering amounts of debt and reduced their ability to support those interest payouts by lowering taxes. Today, investors often find bonds issued by corporations that not only have better credit ratings but strong earnings to support their debt payments. As government borrowing continues to spiral out of control, corporate bonds look even more attractive. For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Time vs Timing One of the great investment myths, is that really smart investors can consistently buy at the bottom. The chances of doing that with any regularity, are between slim and none. If you bought an Exchange Traded Fund that tracked the Dow Jones Industrial Average, your odds of buying it, at a one time low, are only 3%. The big money is made investing in a great company at a fair price and then continuing to add to it over time. Picking winners and letting them run, is how money grows exponentially. Quality and time consistently beat timing. For more information listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Getting & Staying Wealthy Getting wealthy and staying that way are two different skill sets. To get rich you need plenty of optimism and be a risk taker. To maintain riches requires paranoia and conservatism - the opposite traits, it took to build wealth in the first place. Most people are good at one but far less are competent at both. Bill Hwang was a hedge fund manager good at making a fortune. Then he unravelled and racked up $100 billion in losses. Bill Gates is one of the few good at both - making and keeping wealth. As an investor you need to have a clear picture of what you are good at and stick with it. Get help where your skills lack. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Billionaires & Sports Franchises People wonder why billionaires buy sports franchises, because, other than massaging their egos, sports teams are thought to be a money pit. Well, not so according to recent sport franchise stats, which tracked six decades of transactions across the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Team valuations have compounded at roughly 13% per year over the past sixty years. That compares with 10.5% for plain-vanilla equities. The sweetheart deals, owners get from cities desperate to keep their hometown heroes from moving elsewhere, makes team ownership very lucrative. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Natural Gas Prices For the first time in decades, North American natural gas is moving from surplus to shortage. Demand has grown partly because of the increased number of Liquifidied Natural Gas Plants that export this super cooled fuel overseas. Our increasingly electrified world, with its EV's and data centres, is using ever greater amounts of gas to create the power needed to run them. As excess supply gets eaten up, expect prices to both rise and get more volatile - especially if we have a cold winter. For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Companies That Switch Businesses Sometimes companies jump from a dead end business, into one that is trendy and attracts lots of dollars from young, inexperienced investors. A good example is Donald Trump Media and Technology. This company dabbles in social media and crypto currency. Those activities haven‘t worked out that well, so the company is trying to buy a business that develops nuclear fusion - the same energy that powers the sun. When a company pivots from something they aren't terribly successful at to something they know little or nothing about - it is time to say goodbye. For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Shrinking Public Markets The number of stocks that publicly trade in Canada has been shrinking for decades. In 2008, Canada had 3520 companies listed on its two major exchanges. As of the end of 2024, that number had shrunk to 2114 - a drop of 40%. This trend reflects more companies choosing to stay private rather than face the increased regulatory burden of public trading. Mergers and acquisitions, have further reduced headcount. This is a bad outcome. Most Canadians don't have easy access to private equity investments, and at the same time, their publicly traded options are shrinking dramatically. For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Kids Need Motivation There is a reason that wealth seldom makes it past the third generation. In the real world a person gets educated for a trade or profession, starts at an entry level, and then works their way up over decades. Why do this, some ask, when you can just wait it out until you receive your big inheritance, and then live happily ever after having a good time. Kids need motivation to be a success in life. Don't let “a no strings attached,” effort free inheritance, rob your kids of the incredible opportunity to making something of themselves in life. For more information, listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - The Radio Bubble One of the most significant inventions of the last century was the radio. Just like AI today, people knew it was going to be life changing, but in the 1920's no one had figured out how to make any money from its use. Investors piled in and pushed stocks like RCA into the stratosphere on the belief the rally would never end. By the close of the 1920's, investors came to the collective realization that profits weren't materializing and so everyone rushed to the exits at the same time in a mad scramble to sell. Stocks in the radio sector fell by 97% over the next three years. It is always different this time …. until it isn't. For more information listen to my Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Oil Glut Currently the world is producing about 2 1/2 million barrels of oil per day more than it is consuming. That glut is expected to at least double this year, and is making investors gloomy on the sector. Lower prices means lower profits and lower stocks. But falling oil prices also have an upside. Refiners of crude increase their profits because their feedstock becomes cheaper. Lower oil prices increase consumption, which is good news for companies that transport fuel like oil tankers and pipelines. Cheaper oil prices, mean companies that consume a lot of fuel, like railroads and airlines, can lower costs and increase profits. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - AI & Your Shopping Habits As AI gets more and more consumer data about you, it can build a profile to determine how much you would be willing to pay for a product or service. This is likely to take more money out of your wallet, than make things cheaper. A recent study by Carnegie Mellon University, concluded that personalized rankings, using AI-algorithms, increased prices for consumers by an average of 29%. Customers, using Amazon's AI-powered chatbot named Rufus, were 60% more likely to make a purchase. Artificial intelligence can be a great tool, as long as we don't let ourselves be manipulated by it. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Bubbles Have An Upside Asset price bubbles often wipe out investors when they burst, but they can also present a huge upside for the economy over the long term. Take for example the fibre optic bubble in the late 1990's. Investor enthusiasm and excess capital built out so much infrastructure, that prices collapsed, taking decades of rising demand to soak up excess supply. This massive and unused data highway became the backbone that launched a technology and social media boom that has powered the economy for the last two decades. The trillions investors wasted, became the springboard for a very profitable future. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Trump & Mid Terms Canadians are concerned that President Trump still has three more years left in his term. This gives him plenty of time to damage our countries economy with his aggressive trade policies, especially since the Republicans control the White House, the senate and the House of Representatives. The thing that could slow Trump down are the mid term US elections next November. Historically the party that holds a majority in the House and the Senate often loses a significant number of seats in the Midterms. This could give the Democrats a majority in the House and make it tougher for Trump to push through his aggressive trade plans. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Copper Used In Data Centres Growing demand for copper is coming from an unexpected source. Huge data centres, such as the ones using Nvidia's high end computer chips, can cost a billion dollars and need up to 50,000 tons of the orange metal per facility. With copper prices over $13,000 per ton, the price tag for the metal used in just one of these mega data centres for its computers, heat exchangers and wiring can run up to $60 million dollars. Copper is another way to profit from growth in AI and data centres. For artificial intelligence to work, they are going to need a whole lot of it. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - The CRA's Lack of Service The Canada Revenue Agency recently announced a program to improve their call Centers. And there is a lot that needs to get better. A recent performance audit found that agents were only providing accurate information to callers 17% of the time. Customer service was also dismal. Only 5% of the calls were answered within 15 minutes and 8.6 million calls were deflected to a self service option without giving the caller the ability to speak to an agent. The CRA doesn't tolerate our returns being late or inaccurate. Shouldn't we expect the same standard from them? For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Public Sector Advantages In the last decade, the public sector is where the biggest job growth has been. Government employment between 2015 and 2024 expanded at an annual average rate of 2.7% per year, while private sector employment grew 1.7% per year. Government jobs now make up 21% of Canada's total. The only place this hasn't been true is in the province of Manitoba, where the private sector added more jobs. How long this can continue is anyone's guess. The larger the governments share of the employment pie, the greater the burden to taxpayers. Government does not pay for itself. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Confidence Is A Mirage When humans are certain about a positive future event happening, they tend to invest aggressively. In the last quarter century, there were three periods when investors were super enthusiastic, preceding the tech bubble in 1999, prior to the Great Financial Crash in 2007-2009 and before the COVID outbreak in 2021. The bear market that followed each, took stock markets down 49%, 56% and 33% respectively. Feeling confident in the future is an emotion. Seeing nothing but clear skies and unlimited opportunity can be a mirage. High confidence is often a sign, just the opposite will happen. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Canada Loses A Bargaining Chip Trump's capture of Venezuelan dictator Maduro, is not great news for Canada. Many US refineries are configured to process heavy oil. Currently much of that feedstock comes from Canada, because until recently, our main competitor, Venezuela, was under embargo, so very little of their oil reached the US. American intervention in Venezuela changes all that. US refiners on the Gulf of Mexico will get access to Venezuelan heavy crude almost immediately. This will not only hurt Canadian producers, but remove a major bargaining chip we had in our trade negotiations with the US. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Winner Take All Technology is a sector where one player eventually dominates and competitors disappear. Google won the search war, Amazon the e-commerce battle and Meta the social media fight. Very often it is winner take all. The AI landscape today has some big players competing for dominance. Google's Gemini 3, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Azure, Elon Musk's Grok, Alibaba's Deep Seek, and Perplexity, backed by Jeff Bezos. Eventually, one, or maybe even a couple AI platforms will win this race, and those who invested in them will make off like bandits. For the rest, who wasted trillions of dollars, the end is not going to be so pretty. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - TFSA Info The amount you can put into a Tax Free Saving Account remains unchanged for 2026. The maximum is still $7,000. The sweet spot, is for those who were 18 or older as of 2009, and have never contributed to a TFSA. Because of the carry forward provisions, which allow for banking past unused contributions, and then using them in the future. This gives those eligible, up to $109,000 worth of contribution room. For anyone who has the funds available to do so - maybe from an inheritance or large asset sale - the TFSA is a great place to hide future income from the taxman. For more information listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - The Fear Greed Index Investors are a fickle bunch. Their emotions tend to ricochet erratically from bullish to bearish and back again. Understanding investor sentiment gives you an awareness as to what others are doing in the market. A good barometer of investor psychology is a website called feargreedindex.net. It uses market and trading indicators to plot an index that has five levels - extreme fear, fear, neutral, greed and extreme greed. Typically doing the opposite at the extremes is where investors profit. Buying during periods of extreme fear, and selling during periods of extreme greed. For more information listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - RRSP Info This is the time of year when people concentrate on investing in their retirement savings plans. The new maximum contribution limit for RRSP's in 2025 will increase to $32,490. If you are already contributing for 2026, the limit is $33,810. The deadline for putting money into an RRSP, to get a deduction for the 2025 tax year is March 2, 2026. The normal deadline is March 1, but since it falls on a weekend, they are extending it to Monday. Contributions made to an RRSP within the first 60 days of 2026, can be applied to either the 2025 or 2026. For more information listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - When To Take CPP The Canada Pension Plan is available starting at 60 and can be taken any time up to age 70. The income gap between taking CPP at 60, and waiting until 70, is an important consideration. If you start taking your benefit at 60, you will receive about $640 per month, at 65 this increases to $1,000 per month, and at 70 expands to $1,420. That's an $800 monthly difference that continues for life, adjusted annually for inflation. The time you start, permanently sets your base income level in retirement. Total payout is important, but needs to be looked at in conjunction with life expectancy, and availability of other sources of income. For more information listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - New Years Resolutions New Year's is a time for course corrections and fresh starts. January 1st allows us to reset the clock and make better financial choices. Sadly most resolutions won't survive the end of the month. Often the reason is their size and complexity. When goals are to big, to hard, or to much work, we get discouraged and give up on them. The key is to make our resolutions simple and easy to accomplish - like joining the company pension plan or increasing our monthly mortgage payment by $100 per month. Succeeding builds confidence to do more - and then, success builds on success.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Debt & Gold Prices It used to be that the US government would step in with extra borrowing to stabilize the economy in times of war or financial duress. Since Covid, spending has gone crazy and the debt machine no longer has any brakes. Not only does the US have to find buyers for new debt, but past borrowing needs to be rolled over and renewed. Of the 37 trillion the US owes, 1/2 of it will mature in the next three years and have to be refinanced at two to three times the interest rates they borrowed at in the past. No wonder gold prices have doubled.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - AI's Power Needs One of the factors that could derail the Artificial Intelligence freight train is a simple lack of electricity needed to run all the data Centers that form its backbone. The demand for power is overwhelming supply and forcing some completed data centres to sit idle, waiting for additional capacity to be added. Currently it takes three to four years to bring new electrical generating infrastructure on line. The public is also pushing to insure that if there is a shortage of electricity, their needs will be looked after first.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Dividends & Performance Dividends, are cash payments a company makes to its shareholders usually on a quarterly basis. Looking at a companies dividend history can provide clues to its performance potential. According to Ned Davis Research, companies that start paying a dividend or regularly increase it, are the stars of the show. Stocks with new or rising dividends returned 10.2% a year on average between 1973 and 2024, versus 6.8% for those with stagnant dividends, 4.3% for nonpayers, and minus 0.9% per year for companies that cut or quit paying their dividend.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Alberta's Carbon Capture Project It will be interesting to see if the Pathways Alliance carbon capture project actually happens. The plan is to build a 400 km pipeline from Fort McMurray to Cold Lake. They would use it to transport Carbon Dioxide produced by the oil sands to underground storage. The costs are expected to be anywhere from 16 to 24 billion to complete. The hitch, is that industry wants government to absorb 50% to 70% of the construction costs. If it does launch by its proposed 2035 date, this project, will take a significant dent out of our CO2 emissions and make Canada a leader in Carbon Capture technology.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Financial Books For X-MAS At this time of year, I like to recommend books that would be great stocking stuffers for the investment nerd on your shopping list. How To Listen When Markets Speak by Lawrence McDonald is one of my favourites. If you are concerned AI is in a bubble, or the negative impact that out of control spending is having on the economy and the markets - this book is for you. It focusses on strategies that protect your assets during times of inflation and financial duress. McDonald is not a conspiracy theorist or gold bug. The book is full of practical interviews with some on the smartest investors on Wall Street. Great Read.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Book Recommendation Listeners often ask what is the best financial book I have read this year? Hands down it would be “How Not To Invest” by Barry Ritholtz. He expands on the approach Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have always taken. That is trying to invest by being less stupid. Their view, is that fortunes are often built, not on what you did right, but on what you didn't get wrong. It is a well researched, enjoyable read, and will provide insights for even seasoned investors, on critical mistakes to avoid.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Time To Be Cautious Nvidia makes high end computer chips that are essential for robotics, artificial intelligence and other sophisticated scientific applications that form the backbone of the new economy. Investor enthusiasm has pushed the value of this companies shares past the 5 trillion dollar mark. Put in perspective, that is more than the combined value of all publicly traded industrial stocks in the US. We are again, hearing phrases like “this is a new era” or “it is different this time,” to justify techs, out of this world prices. I am not a doom and gloomer - just getting cautious.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - The Trades Are A Great Career It used to be that the route to a solid, good paying, secure, middle class lifestyle, started with a college degree. Lately, the rising costs of higher education have made the trades a much more compelling option. You can earn while you learn and often finish the program with little or no debt. The trades also offer security. It is very difficult to substitute the work trades do, offshoring those tasks to lower wage countries. Plus, the trades are one of the least likely, to be replaced by AI and robotics. If you are a young person, making a career choice, the trades offer a compelling opportunity.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Bitcoin Loses The recent price drop saw Crypto currencies lose about 1.2 trillion dollars over the last couple of months. Bitcoin alone gave up a 1/3 of its value. This has left a lot of grim and dejected investors in crypto land. But should all this volatility come as a surprise? Bitcoin selloffs as recently as 2018 and 2022, saw drops of 75% and 80%. Which if repeated, could take Bitcoin prices down to $25,000 US. I am not saying we are in crypto winter. Just offering a reminder that huge price drawdowns are part of the game when investing in digital currencies

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Uranium's Energy Density One of the attractions of uranium is its energy density. A little goes a very long way. The energy gotten from a kilogram of wood will power a light bulb for a day and a half. The energy derived from a kilogram of oil, or coal, will light that same bulb for four days. One kilogram of uranium, will power a light bulb, day and night, for the next 25,000 years. Policy makers are just starting to realize that tiny amounts of uranium can replace huge amounts of coal, wood and oil. Fuels which generate large amounts of CO2.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - America's Fix Won't Be Easy America has been in a stupor the last twenty years. They have allowed themselves to get to a point strategically, where they have to import 90% of their uranium and almost the same percentage of rare earth minerals. They run massive trade and budget deficits which require foreigners to use their surplus dollars to buy huge amounts of government debt to make it work. Their pension system will run out of funds in less than seven years. To fix this mess will take time and require pain and financial sacrifice from everyone. A reality, that the American voter, is in complete denial.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Uranium The uranium sector looks like it is finally waking up from decades of slumber. The world has come to grips with the fact that nuclear is the only untapped technology capable of generating abundant energy 24/7, without producing Co2. The streamlining of the nuclear approval process, the development of small modular reactors and an increase in electricity demand point to a uranium supply deficit. We need to produce about 20% more to meet demand. It will take at least a decade to bring on enough mine capacity to satisfy the deficit. How far prices can rise in the meantime - is anyone's guess.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Market Cycles I have never seen anyone believe that tides levels will keep going in one direction forever because it is different this time. People have watched tides, cycle in and out twice a day for generations. That is what tides do. Markets do the same thing, just not with as much regularity. In spite of this frequency, investors are always shocked when overpriced markets go down and undervalued ones go up. The biggest mistake investors make is thinking in one direction. Markets are cyclical and move in waves - not straight lines.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Playing With Fire History shows that in times of conflict, countries often withhold interest payments on domestic bonds held by their enemies. United States, froze payments on dollar-denominated debt to the Japanese before World War II, and did the same to Russia after the Ukraine war began. The downside in doing this, is fewer people wanting to own your debt or currency. When you are a massive borrower like the US, fear of retaliation and confiscation aren't big selling features. America is playing with fire, biting the hand of people who support them

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Concentration & Returns Diversification in a portfolio is important because it spreads your risk across many assets and lowers exposure to any one of them. The problem, is you seldom get market beating returns owning dozens or even hundreds of securities. Oversized gains require concentrated portfolios. For example, Bill Gates has a 50 billion dollar investment portfolio. 79% of it is in only 4 stocks - Microsoft, Waste Management, Berkshire Hathaway and Canadian National Railway. The stocks high quality lessens the risk, but the concentration danger that goes hand in hand with oversized returns is still there.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Time in Retirement Grows Since the year 2000, the costs of basic needs—such as home ownership, healthcare, and education—have consistently outpaced wage growth. This trend is expected to continue. As life expectancy increases, the amount of time we spend in retirement grows as well. By 2043, the average retirement may be 21 years. As a result, Canadians need to re-examine their financial goals. Success could mean saving more, working longer, seeking higher returns on investment or a combination of the above. The more time you have to make these adjustments the less likely you will be to outlive your retirement savings.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - The Cockroach Rule If you have ever had cockroach's in your kitchen, you will know there is never just one. The same advice holds true with loan portfolios of financial institutions like banks and trust companies. When a particular institution starts writing off aggressive, high risk loans, it is often a signal that there are more to come. Mistakes are seldom solo. If a lender likes a sector, they will green light staff to approve more loans in the same line of business. When a bank has to write off a bad idea, investors need to beware. Just like cockroaches, there are usually more than one.