Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Ways To Play AI Is SpaceX important to the future of AI? Of course? Whether you should buy it, is an entirely different discussion. At current prices, investors are paying $90 dollars for every dollar of sales the company generated last year. That is extraordinarily rich. If you want to participate in AI by owning companies with more reasonable valuations, look at some of the un-hyped suppliers to this industry that get paid no matter which AI platform wins. Companies that provide the fuel, produce the electricity, expand the grid or produce the metals needed to build out AI infrastructure - these are the unsung heroes of the artificial intelligence boom. 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 - IPO Performance The markets are seeing more owners taking their companies public, than we have seen in years. Names like SpaceX and Antropic, the Artificial intelligence platform, have got the markets buzzing. But the question investors should be asking, is how have new issues performed compared to the markets as a whole. Is it worth venturing into this unknown? The stats show that between 1980 and 2024, the average Initial Public Offering went up by 5.6% in the first year, and over 3 years, underperformed the markets as a whole by 20.5%. There are exceptions, but generally new issues are aggressively priced to the advantage of the seller and not the buyer. Investors need to be selective. 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 - Are Tariffs Here To Stay? Back in February, many foreign countries breathed a sigh of relief when the US Supreme Court struck down the broad based tariffs that the Trump administration imposed. This set in motion a mad scramble by US companies to apply for the 166 billion in refunds these tariffs had accumulated. Trump, unfazed, said he would be back with a new set of tariffs that would be much harder for the courts to challenge. It took months to conjure up a revised formula, but the new trade rules are just starting to roll out. Anyone hoping they would disappear is going to be disappointed. As long as Trump is president, tariffs look like they are here to stay. 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 - Defensive Portfolios Building a defensive stock portfolio isn't rocket science. For ideas, just think about all the products and services you need to buy whether the economy is good or bad. You switch on the lights when it is dark. Turn up the thermostat when it gets cold. Take the trash to the curb once a week. You shower, shave and eat breakfast before driving to work. All these activities are non discretionary. They are continuous expenditures. With a little research, you will find that behind many of these services are public companies with shares that trade on the stock market. These are great candidates for a defensive portfolio. 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 - Taxing Unrealized Profits The next frontier in governments ever increasing reach to separate you from your money is the annual taxation of unrealized profits on assets, even though they continue to be held and aren't sold. In their crosshairs are investments like stocks, homes, businesses, art, precious metals and cryptocurrency. Countries have been watching the Netherlands and Switzerland closely to assess the impact. Both have been early adopters of this new form of taxation. The risk with this approach, is that the people who end up moving elsewhere are the ones this tax is intended to target - the wealthy. 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 Kid Headache A lot of retirees are able to look back on a life filled with great careers, substantial charitable commitments, deep friendships and financial success. Yet their one sore point, is kids who never give them the time of day, except when they need the bank of mom and dad to bail them out financially. If you have this kind of relationship, do what actors like James Brown and Jerry Lewis did - write them out of your will or divert a substantial portion of your wealth - while living - to worthy causes or people. There are far better places to put your wealth, than in the hands of kids, who don't appreciate or deserve 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 - Six Minutes It just makes sense, to do your homework before making an expensive purchase. Car buyers on average, do over 10 hours of online research, and visit at least four dealerships before closing a deal. Home buyers spend approximately 124 hours over several months, researching and looking for a home before making a purchase. Contrast this to the average investor. They typically take only 6 minutes studying an investment before pulling the trigger. If you don't know what you're doing, trading stocks is an expensive place to find out. The market is a conveyor belt that eventually transfers money from those who don't know what they are doing, to those who do. 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 - Vehicle Purchase Scams In the past, buying a car was usually done in person. You would meet the owner or go to a dealership and see someone face to face. Then would come the vehicle inspection, test drive and discussion about price. Today more and more auto transactions are taking place on line. The buyer never meets anyone and doesn't see the vehicle until it shows up at their doorstep. This digital sales process has led to a big increase in vehicle scams. Thieves put up fake websites, post pictures of fake showrooms, and show detailed shots of fake inventory. Vehicles are big ticket items. If you are going to buy online, do your homework to ensure the buyer is real. For more information listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

AI's Second Act Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Investors who are disappointed because they missed out on the recent huge gains made by AI stocks shouldn't feel the party is over. We are likely early in the game - just finishing Round 1. Where AI models and supporting infrastructure get tested and developed. Round 2 is the global rollout. This is where Artificial Intelligence finds its practical application in the daily lives of business, government and individuals. We're just starting Round 2, and it is still unclear what the most profitable uses will be. But if history is any indication, figuring this out, will be where the next round of profits comes from. 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 - Patience & Energy Investing The biggest spikes in oil prices historically, have always occurred as a result of wars, embargoes, or other political tensions in the Middle East. The reason is obvious. This area produces 30% of the world's total crude, so any disruption sends prices skyward. What isn't so obvious, is the timing of those disruptions. Most have caught the experts and general public alike, completely unaware. Because the Middle East is so unpredictable, the best investment strategy, is to wait for a time when the world is stable, oil prices are down, and oil stocks are cheap. Simply buy, hold your nose, and wait. A Middle East crisis will eventually appear out of nowhere - pushing prices higher. 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 - Working Longer People are living longer, healthier lives. Over the past 50 years, average global life expectancy has risen from 62 to 75 years. Developed countries saw longevity increase from 72 to 82 years. This has many experts worried that those extra years in retirement, and the risk of lower government benefits, will lead to a financial crisis. Thankfully people are paying attention, and their solution is to simply work longer. Since 2000, the average number of years a person stays in the work force has risen by 12% - from 34 to 38 years. Economic necessity, is guiding people to make the adjustments necessary to ensure their retirement is successful. 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 Alberta Advantage Revisited The Alberta advantage, is all about living in a place where you can earn more, and your cost of living, especially for homes and taxes, is less. This advantage really shows up in the amount people can save. Between 2019 and 2025, the average Alberta household was able to put about $65,000 in the piggy bank. BC, because of its high costs, saw household savings over the same period between 10 and 15 thousand. The Alberta advantage allows residents to save 4 to five times as much as those in the province next door. BC might have milder winters, but the cost for that privilege, makes it almost impossible for the average person living there, to get ahead financially. 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 - Share Buybacks & Stock Prices For well over a century, most of the gains from owning stocks came from the dividends they paid - up to 90% in fact. Then things began to change. In our present era, only 30% of gains come from dividends. The remainder, or 70%, now comes from share price appreciation. One of the reasons for this, is, companies are using more of their profits to buy back shares instead of using them to pay out dividends. Last year, companies globally spent 1.3 trillion dollars on share buybacks. This pushed their share count down, and their share price up. It is one of the reasons, for the incredibly high prices, stocks are currently enjoying. 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 - Dividend Growth Dividend paying stocks are a wonderful thing. But companies, that can both, pay and grow their dividends over time - are even better. Like many Canadian investors, I have banks stocks in my portfolio that have been owned continuously for decades. This sector has amply rewarded us for our patience. Many of these bank shares have grown their dividends to a point where the yearly cash distribution per share is greater than the price originally paid for the shares in the first place. This is providing an annual cash return of 100% or more on the original investment, and that isn't even including share price appreciation. 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 - Strategic Reserves & Supercycles During the Covid epidemic, global supply chains collapsed, leading to shortages of many critical goods. It is happening again with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. We are experiencing shortages in oil, natural gas, fertilizer, aluminum and sulphur. The country that has spent many decades preparing for this is China. They have built massive surpluses in critical minerals, fossil fuels and grains … to be tapped into, during times like these. Other countries, who haven't been nearly as well prepared, are starting to follow China's example and create stockpiles of their own. This extra demand has some believing we could be entering a commodities super cycle lasting a decade or more. 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 Best of Times Even though the world has its problems, we are still living in the greatest period in history. Across the long arc of human existence, economic growth crawled forward at a rate of perhaps 0.1 percent per year. This was enough to support a very gradual increase in population, but not enough to improve the average persons living standards. Then came the industrial and knowledge revolutions. Suddenly, there was progress, when before there had been none. Economic growth began to move upward much faster than the growth rate of the population. This has continued through to the present day, leaving mankind much better off financially than they have ever been. 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 - Orbital Data Centers Rocket companies are the next big thing among tech investors. They will provide the transportation needed to build data centers in outer space. The advantage touted by fans of orbital data centers, is that they can be powered by solar energy - which is available 24/7 in space. The disadvantages no one wants to talk about, are the incredible costs to lift all the pieces into orbit, and the complexity of carrying out repairs when parts fail. Once again, investors are looking way over the horizon, and making bets on things that are far from reality, and even farther from profitability. Hope has never been a profitable investment strategy. But maybe this time, the dreamers will prove us wrong. 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 - We The People I recently watched a public debate on economic policy. The audience would cheer and applaud every time one of the debaters would blame politicians, the rich, or big business for the economic quagmire we are in. Over the 90 minute event, the one group that was conveniently ignored was the general public. You, me, the neighbour next door, the rest of us. We take no blame for being economically illiterate, sinking in debt up to our eyeballs and continually electing people who promise to shower us with the most economic goodies. In a democracy, solutions start when the group known as “We The People”, starts taking accountability for their own actions, instead of blaming others. 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 - Old School Economics Current economic thinking is to narrow the tax base as much as possible and get fewer and fewer people to pay more and more. And secondly, the solution to everything involves spending lavishly and not fiscal restraint. I am obviously showing my age here, but I can remember not too far back when most nations pushed for policies that expanded the tax base. They created economic conditions that allowed its citizens to earn more, causing the tax base to expand - not shrink. They also had the discipline to cut spending to match the revenue coming in. If we want a sustainable economy, we are going to have to get back to those strategies that made us a success in the first place. 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 - A Needle In The Haystack Some sectors of the economy are fairly easy to determine, which individual companies in it, will be winners or losers. Other sectors like technology, bioscience and junior mining are very hard. The number of companies in these areas that become successful are small in number…but for the ones that make it…the payoffs can be huge. For most investors, the way to get exposure to difficult sectors, is to buy an exchange traded fund that owns a basket of companies, rather than trying to pick individual stocks. As Jack Bogle often said, instead of looking for a needle in a haystack - just buy the haystack. 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 - Investing & Ego Investing in stocks is no place for those who have never been wrong or can't be bear to be wrong. Some people are wired psychologically with a need to be consistently correct. For people like that, investing will simply chew them up mentally. Investing is a messy business. You make lots of mistakes, and all those mistakes are very visible. Even the best stock pickers are wrong 20% of the time. Those who can't compartmentalize their mistakes and move on, should seek someone more suited to manage their portfolios, or else they should stick with investments that aren't as stressful. Life has enough challenges. Investing shouldn't be one of 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 - Why Markets Remain High The stock markets keep hitting all time highs in spite of tariffs, regional wars, trade embargoes and $100 oil prices. This is leaving investors wondering why stocks continue to levitate on what seems like thin air. The answer involves money flows into artificial intelligence and defence. The estimated cost to build out AI infrastructure is 7 trillion dollars over the next five years. Defence spending is increasing dramatically because of wars in Ukraine and Iran. Also, America is pushing to get its allies to double and triple the amount they budget for military purposes. When huge flows of capital are injected into the global economy, it is massively stimulative for both corporate profits and stock prices. 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 - High Auto Prices In 2025, China built nearly as many vehicles, as the next six largest, auto-producing, countries combined. This dominance is driven not by just low prices. Advances in factory automation, car design software, battery efficiency and faster development cycles are giving the Chinese gains in productivity, variety and quality that are leaving their competitors in the dust. North American auto manufacturers survive by selling high priced SUV's and trucks, with big gas guzzling engines to the domestic market. Can they survive in a world of $2 a litre gas, and customers, who out of economic necessity, can't afford gas guzzlers that cost $40-$50 grand? 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 - Strait of Hormuz Solutions Free markets have a way of sorting things out. Take for example the Strait of Hormuz. 20% of the world's oil passes through this 40 km wide channel every day. Iran has used threats to shut it down as a political club going back almost 50 years. That will soon end. Saudi Arabia is building a pipeline which will deliver 5 to 7 million barrels a day to domestic ports on the Red Sea. Iraq is connecting pipelines, that will send its oil overland to refineries in Europe. The United Arab Emirate are building a pipeline around the strait, redirecting their oil to ports on the Persian Gulf. By late 2027, closing the Strait of Hormuz, will no longer hold the world hostage. Users, have built infrastructure to get around 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 HiebTechnology Pushback People invest in technology, like robotics, self driving cars, artificial intelligence and datacentres with a view that they are an unstoppable tsunami. But we are starting to see pushback from groups legitimately worried about the impact this technology will have on their careers and lifestyles. Groups, are trying to block the use of self driving cars in their cities. Municipalities, are refusing zoning changes to build data centres. Others like the movie industry, are organizing to restrict the use of AI in their profession. People are beginning to understand the enormous changes technology will have and are starting to pushback. 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 HiebeTrade Agreements Take A Long Time I am not sure investors have thought through, how long it could take Canada, to renegotiate the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico. The last round of USMCA negotiations officially began on August 16, 2017, and wasn't concluded until September 30, 2018. It took 13 grinding months, regularly filled with intense political drama, before they were able to wrap up the deal. Meetings between the US and Canada haven't even started yet, and are expected to be far tougher than the those conducted 8 years ago. Long periods of uncertainty are seldom good for the stock market or the economy. 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 - A Very Narrow Rally If your portfolio has recently been suffering the performance blues , it is because most market sectors are sucking gas. The S&P 500, which represents a broad swath of America's biggest and highest quality names, has seen 1/2 its recent gains come from 28 out of all 503 stocks. Most of these 28 companies are tech and Artificial Intelligence related. If you are concentrated in these sectors, your portfolio has outperformed. If it isn't, your investments have been treading water. A rally is healthiest when all boats rise together. When only a few stocks support the entire market, the uptrend is often skating on thin ice. 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 Shortage Impact Investors have pushed markets to new highs thinking that the oil shortage, caused by the US and Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz, is something we will have no problem dealing with. Yet the big impact of losing 13 million barrels of oil production a day is still ahead of us. Most countries have made up the shortfall by drawing down their strategic oil reserves. This is only a short term solution. Unless some kind of settlement can be reached between the US and Iran by the end of June, reserves will dry up and the world's economy will have to face the full brunt of these shortages. Spiralling fuel prices, rising inflation and a global recession are the likely result. 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 HiebeRents Are Declining Long suffering Canadian renters are finally getting some relief. Average rents in Canada declined 4.7% year-over-year in April, falling by $100 to $2,027. This marks the 19th consecutive month of declines. The biggest drop in apartment rents has been in some of the secondary markets next to Canada's biggest cities. Richmond has declined -13.1%, Markham 12.0%, Oakville and Coquitlam -11.1% and Burnaby -10.2%. Slowing down the flood of immigrants into Canada and increasing construction of rental facilities has done wonders to make things more affordable. 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 - Safe Havens People wonder why there are so few safe havens anymore. Places you can hide when markets are in turmoil. Recently, when markets drop, even the quality stuff falls with it. The reason for this, has to do with the tremendous levels of debt people are taking on to invest. When markets go south, investors are forced to liquidate securities to bring their loans onside. The securities that are easiest to sell are the largest, highest quality ones, that trade the most volume. The upside, is these are usually the first securities to bounce back up. But that doesn't feel like much consolation, when your losing money. 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 - Consistently Profitable Companies One of the best investment strategies, is to avoid owning shares in companies or industries that aren't consistently profitable. A good example is the global airline industry. As a whole, between World War II and 2021, this sector lost more money than they made over the entire 76 year period. If it wasn't for all kinds of government support, the airline industry would be so dead you could stick a fork in it. If a company can't generate consistent profits, it eats money instead of earning it. No matter how exciting the story, investors need to avoid these financial black holes, or their capital will spiral down the drain, 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 - Employee Financial Literacy As every manager knows, an employees personal issues often get dragged into the work place. Studies show that one in three full-time employees have money worries that negatively impact their productivity at work. If you are an employer, a cost effective way to improve employee performance, is by offering a financial literacy program to staff covering basic topics like debt, budgeting, saving and retirement planning. Increased financial knowledge, can make employees better at managing their own affairs, and also help them become more savvy with corporate funds as well. 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 - A Clever Scam The most sophisticated internet scam I have recently seen, involves a fake email or text supposedly from your financial institution notifying you that money has been illegally taken out of your account. Of course, they need to contact you, to work on getting it back. You, obviously being too smart to be taken by this, call your bank directly. Typically, the bank never answers the phone, so you leave a message. The scammer knows that banks seldom return calls promptly, so they phone you shortly after you opened the email. Thinking it is a legit call, you give them all your information. You only figure out the scam, when your real financial institution calls back later. 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 - Carney's Aggressive Strategy Negotiations on our trade free trade agreement with Mexico and the US will start in just over a month. The stakes are enormous for Canada and Mexico, but much less so for America, so Trump feels he can play hardball with us. Mexico's president, has chosen to turn the volume down and not react to Trump's insults. Mark Carney's strategy is to be much more aggressive in his response, and in hockey terms - go into the corner with his elbows up. I hope Carney knows what he is doing, by escalating the rhetoric. If he gets it wrong, we have a lot more to lose than the US does. 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 - Private Equity Lack of Liquidity Private-equity funds set limits on how much cash investors are allowed to withdraw at any given time. Because they hold illiquid assets, such as private company shares or debt, these funds typically let investors cash out only once a quarter. A problem occurs when requests to sell reach more than 5% to 7% of total assets. The fund will restrict withdrawals and only fill a portion of each request. A problem for Canadian investors comes when they fill plans like Registered Retirement Income Funds with private equity. RRIF's require withdrawing a certain amount from the plan each year and if those investments are illiquid, the RRIF might not be able to generate enough funds to meet those withdrawals in cash. 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 -Deficits Are Solvable If you found out your spending was 5% higher than your income, it wouldn't take a lot of economic fine tuning to get things back in balance because the difference between what's coming in and what's going out isn't that large. On a bigger scale, 5% is also the ballpark deficit gap most western governments face when they prepare their annual budgets. Yet, somehow, our elected officials find the task of budgeting and living within their means, impossible to do. A twenty or thirty percent spread between income and expenses would be a tough gap to close. But 5%. That should be very doable. 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 - Dot-Com Comparisons Caution is a word investors should include in their current tech strategies. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is a good proxy for the global computer chip industry. It recently experienced its largest 25-day rally since the 2000 dot-com bubble. In 25 trading sessions, the benchmark advanced 54%. This was its best 25-day performance since March 2000, when it rose 56% at the peak of the dot-com bubble. What investors forget - is the aftermath. Between March 2000, and September 2002, the index sank 80%. We are at a point in the cycle, where risk has to be included in any investment calculation, and not just reward. 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 - Surprising Iran War Shortages When the 40 km wide Strait of Hormuz, just off Iran's south west coast, is closed to shipping, we get a lesson on just how interconnected global supply chains really are. Most people know that 20% of the world's oil passes through this strategic waterway. But there is so much more. Roughly 1/3 of all internationally traded fertilizer and 20% of its Liquified Natural Gas starts here. Helium is used in the manufacture of computer chips and other advanced electronics. 30% is produced in this area. Sulphur makes sulphuric acid, which, in turn, is essential to processing critical minerals like copper and nickel. 50% of sulphurs seaborne trade, transits through the Persian Gulf. 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 - Good Times Never Last Most current investors have only known markets with rising stock prices. Equities bottomed after the Great Financial Crisis in 2009 and have been on a tear ever since. The concept that markets can go sideways or down for extended periods is beyond most investors comprehension. Yet history is full of examples. Stock markets went nowhere between 1929 and 1954, again from 1964 to 1982 and recently between 2000 and 2013. Those periods lasted 26 years, 18 years and 13 years respectively. This doesn't mean investors should curl up in a fetal position and suck their thumb. But, they should realize that good times don't last forever and invest accordingly. 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 Best Time To Invest Great investors seem to intuitively know when to invest aggressively and when to back off. Risks are elevated when markets keep hitting new highs, so this group typically moves to the sidelines and patiently waits. The rewards for investing when assets are overvalued and priced to perfection, just aren't high enough to make it worthwhile. After securities drop down to levels that reflect reality, this is when great investors shift gears from passive to aggressive. They start putting money to work buying securities that are fairly priced or if lucky, undervalued. When all the bad news is reflected in current stock prices, risks are the lowest and the probability for big gains the highest. 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 - A Retirement Side Business For a lot of people, retirement brings up two big questions. How can I constructively fill my time and how can I afford it. Both can be answered by launching a home based business or side hustle. It can be fun to do and provide extra cashflow. To make this work, you want to start this business before you retire - the earlier the better. That will give you enough of a runway to get the project off the ground and make it profitable. Working out the details in advance, will ensure that when it is time to transition away from the 9-5 routine - it will be a smooth one. 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 - A Retirement Side Business For a lot of people, retirement brings up two big questions. How can I constructively fill my time and how can I afford it. Both can be answered by launching a home based business or side hustle. It can be fun to do and provide extra cashflow. To make this work, you want to start this business before you retire - the earlier the better. That will give you enough of a runway to get the project off the ground and make it profitable. Working out the details in advance, will ensure that when it is time to transition away from the 9-5 routine - it will be a smooth one. 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 - Kid's Are Expensive In 2025, the estimated cost of raising a child in Canada from birth to age 17 reached $293,000. That translates into about $17,235 per year. This estimate is based on a middle income, two parent family. If the kid decides to live down the basement, while getting you to subsidize their post secondary education, those costs can go much, much higher. This huge price tag partly explains why birth rates are at record lows, and the age of parents who decide to have kids is at record highs. Having a family, along with paying taxes and owning a home are life's three big expenses. Delaying a family until you can afford it, shows this generation has more financial savvy, than they are often given credit for. 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 Needs More Electricity Canada is facing an electricity shortage. Production peaked in 2017, and since that time we have added over 4 million people to our ranks - who also consume the stuff. Canada, in its bid to get the economy humming, wants to fast track the build out of factories, mines, refineries, liquified natural gas plants and data centres among others. The bottleneck to these plans, is they all need electricity - and lots of it. In fact more than we have available to supply everyone's current needs. This shortfall will require massive investment in electrical generation and infrastructure - an area that has been neglected for decades. Utilities, offer a back door, to profit from that shortage. 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 - Lessons From Africa Forty years ago, the country of Zimbabwe, previously known as Rhodesia, was the breadbasket of Africa, with one of its richest and most industrialized economies. Then came decades of corruption, overspending and blatant money printing. Inflation caught fire, averaging 43 percent per year between 2009 and 2026. In 2008, things got so bad the country flooded the markets with paper currency. Each bill had a face value of 100 trillion and a street value of less than 50 US cents. I keep a number of these notes in my study. It's a reminder of what happens when you try to solve overspending by printing money. 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 - We Created Our Problems Trump can be an obnoxious bully, but we can't blame him for the problems we created ourselves. We were the ones, who for decades, never contributed our fair share to NATO's defence budget. Also, it was much easier to sell goods south of the border, so we neglected developing global trading partners or getting our act together with the other provinces. The auto industry is suffering from massive overcapacity. America doesn't need to buy from us a product they are overproducing themselves. Trump is the messenger, and a nasty one at that, but many of our problems are self induced, and needed to be addressed sooner or later. Unfortunately, Trump making it sooner, is what we don't like. 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 - Backdoor US Investing We all know people who are boycotting the US. They won't invest in American stocks to send a message they are upset by America's treatment of Canada. But in doing so, investors leave money on the table. America is a more dynamic and faster growing economy than Canada. One way to get around this roadblock, is to buy Canadian companies that generate a significant portion of their revenue and profits from the US. This provides exposure to higher growth opportunities, but does so in a way that funnels profits back into Canada and to you the shareholder. In a perverse way, you are taking American profits and putting them in your Canadian pocket. 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 - Costs of Home Ownership When comparing the cost of home ownership in the 6 biggest cities in Canada, Edmonton and Calgary come out as the most affordable. In Edmonton, the share of household income needed to cover ownership costs is 33.2 percent. Calgary comes in at 41.6%. In Edmonton's case, home ownership costs are 1/2 those of Toronto and 2.7 times less expensive than Vancouver. Not only are home ownership costs cheaper, but Alberta's strong employment numbers, give buyers the incomes needed to qualify for a mortgage. For families wanting an affordable place to live, with all the amenities a big city has to offer, Alberta can't be beat. 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 Walmart Recession Indicator When economic times get tough, people change their shopping habits and start looking for bargains. This results in a pickup among discounters like Walmart and Costco and a decrease in traffic to luxury retailers. The bigger this downward shift in consumer spending, the more likely the economy is to experience a significant slowdown or recession. One gauge that tracks these changes in consumer behaviour is called the Walmart Recession Indicator. Currently, it is flashing its highest downturn reading since the Great Financial crisis of 2008-2009. Now economic indicators aren't always right. But in volatile times, they warn of extra 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 - AI & Crime The advancement of Artificial intelligence will provide science, business, government and individuals with productivity tools no one thought possible even a decade ago. It will also give criminals the ability to crack the the technology firewalls used to protect our financial system. The US government is so concerned about AI's ability to exploit these vulnerabilities, they called an emergency meeting focussing on the threat, and requested the CEO's of America ‘s major financial institutions attend. They also delayed the launch of an AI platform that has proved to be especially good at finding chinks in our financial armour. If the banks can't stop being hacked by artificial intelligence - what chance do the rest of 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 - Newbirds Crazy In 2021 a company called Allbirds went public. They made shoes out of marino wool and other natural materials that were all the rage of the tech bros at the time. Move the clock forward 5 years, and you find a company that is on the ropes, and whose shares have lost 99.6% of their original value. But then, a couple of weeks ago, a miracle happened. The stock popped 582% in one day on news the company was pivoting from the shoe business, on which it never made money, to building out AI infrastructure and changing its name to Newbirds. When you can't even make up stories this crazy, you know markets have gone insane. For more information listen to our Making Money podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.