Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Tax Conspiracies While recently enjoying a cup of coffee with a neighbour, he mentioned a strange idea I thought had been discredited years ago. It involves a conspiracy theory that keeps resurrecting itself on the internet. This fairy tale says that any government law directing you to pay income tax is illegal, and thus, you need not comply. Unfortunately tax legislation enacted in 1913 in the US and 1917 in Canada states otherwise. Also, one of the favoured tools used by law enforcement agencies to catch leaders of organized crime syndicates, is tax evasion. If anyone has the legal resources and money to prove taxes are illegal it would be them…but these gangsters rot in jail - none the less. 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 - Liberal vs Conservatives In 1811, the French diplomat, Joseph de Maistre, observed that every nation has the government it deserves. In a democracy our political choices reflect the moral and intellectual preferences of the voters who elect them. The issue for investors is emotional. If the party, or parties, they didn't vote for, attain power, it is common for investors to assume that society will spiral into the abyss. In disillusionment, they quit investing and often liquidate what they have to protect themselves. This is a mistake. Studies have shown very little difference in returns whether a liberal or conservative is in power. Bureaucracy makes sure most election promises never see the light of day. The trick is staying invested. 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 - Asymmetric Warfare The strategies on how wars are fought has been turned on its head the last couple of years. In the past, the country with the most tanks, ships and planes would overwhelm the enemy with superior firepower. Currently, small countries with very limited resources, have been able to stalemate their bigger adversaries using drones and other low cost weapons. Ukraine, has kept the much stronger Russians at bay for 5 years. America's navy can't keep the Strait of Hormuz open, and Britain and France are having the same problem moving traffic through the Suez Canal. Investors need to pay attention. As the tools of warfare change, so are the companies that make 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 - Gold Miner Profits Now that gold bullion has pulled back 20% from its January highs of $5500 US, many investors have lost interest and moved on. Yet even at the current price of $4,400 US per ounce, profits for miners of the yellow metal are still enormous. The sector is printing cash at a rate not seen in decades. In fact, the gold miners are churning out the highest profit margins of any sector. Currently technology companies profit margins are a stellar 17%. Gold miners numbers are hitting 31% - almost double that. The shine may have left gold bullion, but it certainly hasn't for the companies that mine 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 - Wealth & IQ A high IQ does not make you a great investor. A good example is Mensa. They are an exclusive society for individuals scoring in the top 2% on IQ tests. They also run their own investment club. A 15-year study, between 1986–2001, found that the Mensa investment club generated a measly 2.5% annualized return. This lagged significantly behind the S&P 500's 15.3% over the same period. The Mensa group underperformed the index by 84% over the decade and a half study. The pitfall of being smart is often ego - believing you are too intelligent to be wrong. When investing, emotion intelligence is even more important than raw IQ as a determinant of investor success. 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 - Fees & Performance What is the best predictor of future fund performance? Some think it is past performance. But research shows that a fund with a 5 star rating, is very unlikely to repeat it going forward. The best indicator of future performance is the funds fee structure. Kiplinger did a study of 1100 mutual funds. They divided them into two baskets. The high fee bucket and the low fee one. On average, over the next 5 years, funds with the lowest fees, outperformed the higher cost ones by 2% a year. Funds that have 1% -2% lower annual fees are difficult to beat no matter how saavy the high fee fund manager might be. 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 - EV's & Oil Consumption Electric vehicles are taking a small but growing bite out of global oil consumption. EV's saved us from using about 1.7 million barrels of oil per day in 2025. That is up from 400,000 barrels per day in 2000. Over the next decade, this is expected to grow 5 fold to 10,000,000 barrels per day. This conversion will reduce global oil demand by about 10%. With the Chinese entering the global market and building electric vehicles the average person can afford, auto manufacturing is slowly moving into the electric age. Investors need to understand that this transformation will happen over decades, and not months or years. 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 - Experts & Oil Prices On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched massive air and missile strikes against military targets and government compounds in Iran. Oil immediately spiked to $110 US per barrel, and it was feared, it would quickly go to $200 per barrel unless the fighting ended soon. Well here we are 6 months later, the conflict hasn't been resolved and crude has drifted down to under $80. Current predictions suggest we could be facing a supply glut that might drive prices down even further. It should be apparent by now, that we don't have a clue what oil will do next, and every prediction is about as accurate as flipping a coin. 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 Baby Boomer Sell Off Baby boomers started retiring a decade and a half ago. Ever since, there have been dire warnings of a pending stock market collapse as boomers sell off investments to support their retirement lifestyle. Though prophecies of doom continue, markets haven't cooperated. Boomers have a high percentage of their portfolios in stocks. Yet instead of selling them as you would suspect, they are passing them on to their kids. Also the generations underneath them, have retirements plans that buy stocks monthly with their contributions, pushing up the whole market. Eventually these predictions could turn out to be correct, but it's been 15 years, and we're still waiting. 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 - Telco Threats Canadian telecommunication stocks used to be considered top choices for risk adverse, income investors. Those glory days are long behind them. Over the last 5 years, BCE and Telus are down 50% and Rogers has lost a third of its value. Government rules have made it harder to be profitable, and the latest technology threat is satellites. The newest satellites are able to send signals directly to cellphones without needing an expensive dish. How successful the industry will be responding to all these challenges - remains to be seen. So far, the results haven't been very impressive. 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 & Compounding Compounding has been described as the 8th wonder of the world. Yet few people understand the power of compounding, and how using it, can turn a little bit of regular savings into a whole lot over time. Take for example a baby who starts investing from birth. Imagine this kid putting a little bit every day into an investment growing 10% annually, until the age of 65. How much do you think he or she would have to save daily to reach $1,000,000? $5? $10? The answer is 54 cents a day or only $16.20 a month. The key to wealth building is time and compounding. It really pays to start early. 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 - Alberta's Tax Burden Alberta's tax beef with the Federal Government is based on how much more our citizens pay to the Federal government than other provinces, and how much less of the tax pie stays in Alberta as a percentage compared to other provinces. In Alberta, 67.3% of the taxes collected go to the Federal government. The average across the country is 56.9%. In Quebec, only 47.9% of all taxes collected go to the Fed's. This much higher figure for Alberta, means that only 26.3% of the tax pie stays with the province versus an average of 37% for the rest of the provinces and 46.4% for Quebec. There is a valid reason for Alberta's frustration. 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 - Bear Market Timing If you visit financial websites, you will have noticed increasingly shrill pop up ads describing current investment conditions as a speculative bubble. They conclude that since stock prices are historically overvalued, a crash is imminent. No one disputes the high prices, but predicting the exact timing of a crash is debatable. In the mid 1960's, you had an investment craze called the Nifty Fifty…kind of like the Magnificent Seven … but with more stocks. Prices remained absurd for 5 -7 years before collapsing. The tech boom of the late 90's elevated share prices into the crazy zone for 2 1/2 years before getting squashed in a bear market. Bubbles are easy to spot, but timing their collapse has been impossible to predict. 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 - Which AI Platform Will Win When you go to a car show, everyone crowds around the 1000 horsepower exotic super car with the European pedigree and million dollar price tag - oohing and aahing. Yet, what they buy when they go to a dealership is the Chevy or Toyota SUV that can be stuffed full of pets, kids and groceries. The economic and practical wins out most of the time. I wonder if the same will hold true for artificial intelligence. The west is spending trillions to build out the smartest and fastest systems. China builds the Chevy of the AI world - practical and way less expensive. When consumers start paying for this, I wonder which platform will be the winner. 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's Lack of Strategy The way Trump has conducted the conflict with Iran so far has been an embarrassment, both for him and the country. You can't substitute war strategy with election propaganda. When oil goes up he is afraid it will cause inflation which voters hate. He then threatens to bomb Iran into the Stone Age if they don't comply to his peace terms. When oil goes down, which voters like, he calls off the bombing and tries to negotiate a peace deal. Basing your military strategy on the price of oil and the votes it will get you back home, is so transparent the Iranian's know exactly what he is going to do next, and so do the people trading energy stocks. 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 - Financial Noise Watching financial news, unleashes a fire hose of information - most of which is totally useless in helping you plan and achieve your financial goals. Separating the valuable from the noise is almost a full time job. The other downside, is that a diet high in financial news creates a time mismatch. Most of us are thinking about strategies that take decades to achieve. Yet much of the advice given on financial networks is by people whose time horizon is next week or next month - not next decade. Cutting your consumption of financial noise will often improve your returns, because it will keep you focussed on the long term. 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 - Tungsten Subsidies Tungsten is an incredibly strong metal with the highest melting point. This puts it in demand for cutting tools, wear resistant parts, munitions, and aerospace components. The problem is a supply bottleneck. China produces 80% of the world's supply and has put a squeeze on exports. As a result, prices have increased 9 times in the last 18 months. This has left Western nations scrambling to develop domestic sources. They have been investing heavily to incentivize miners to do so. Government financial backing, and guaranteeing an end market with long term purchase contracts has lessened the sectors risk. Investors should be paying attention! 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 - Micro Betting The second fastest growing economic sector in America from 2019-2024 was gambling … and sports betting was the hotspot. In 2017, Americans legally bet $4.9 billion dollars on various sports. In 2025, it was over $160 billion. During those 8 years, it grew 32 times larger. To keep fans interested, formats continuously change. The next big trend looks to be Micro - bets. Rather than betting on a game's outcome, fans are increasingly wagering on more immediate events, like whether a player hits a home run at the next at bat or if a quarterback completes a pass on the next play. Gamblers seem to get bored easily, so the key to this sectors growth, is its ability to endlessly change the things people can bet on. 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 - Tech Concentration Risk Global markets have been difficult to profit from if your portfolio is properly diversified across different asset classes and securities. Most sectors currently are treading water, and only a few stocks are providing the majority of the gains. In the first 6 months of this year, US markets gained 10.2%… 9.1% of which came from technology stocks. The Canadian market recorded an 11.2% increase over the first 1/2 of the year. The performance superstars up here were the financial and energy sectors. They gained 7.6% and 3.6% respectively. Concentrating positions in a few securities to capture big gains can be rewarding, but…the downside comes when prices drop, leaving a big whole in your wallet. 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 - Past Performance & The Future Investing is based on the cult of performance, but as is so often repeated - past performance does not guarantee future results. Take for example, the services that rank mutual fund managers on a scale of one to five stars - with five stars being the highest. It seems intuitive that picking a five star fund would be the logical investment choice. But experience shows that it isn't. Only about 12% to 14% of 5-star rated mutual funds manage to retain their 5-star status the following year. Past performance has a track record and is easy to rank - but it is not a reliable indicator of how much profit a fund will generate in the 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 - AI's Big Promises Our current bull market is effectively one gigantic bet on Artificial Intelligence. Since Chat-GPT was launched in November 2022, AI-related stocks have accounted for 75% of market gains, 80% of market profits, and 95% of capital expenditures in the US. The single most important issue determining whether this bull market will continue, is based upon the answer to a simple question. Will Artificial Intelligence, or the AI revolution, be able to deliver on its optimistic promises of boosting productivity and reducing costs? If so - all is well. If not - investors could be in for a world of hurt. 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 - Boomers & Home Prices If you are thinking that your dream home is beyond reach - that could change given time. Demand for mid to higher end homes is likely to be lower as demographics shift. Baby boomers are aging, younger generations are smaller in number, birthrates are low, and policy changes have thinned immigration. This will bring a lot of housing units onto the market, as baby boomers, which are the largest home owning generation ever, make their exit. This could create a glut of middle and higher end homes. When supply is greater than demand, prices drop, and that is when dreams can become reality. 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 - Tech Spending & Growth Massive investments in technology were the major driver of US economic growth in 2025. Harvard economist Jason Furman, calculated that technology investments accounted for 92% of Gross Domestic Product growth last year. Other research suggests that AI data center buildouts contributed more to the economy than all consumer spending in America combined in 2025. The huge flows of capital, concentrating on the the buildout of data centres and artificial intelligence capability, mask how weak the rest of the US economy currently is. I just hope that this capital investment can provide all the efficiency and economic growth the tech companies are promising, or there will be some unpleasant surprises ahead. 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 - Alberta's Tax Freedom Day We certainly pay a lot of taxes. Even in Alberta where the burden is less than most other provinces, tax freedom day didn't come this year until May 25th. If the average Canadian family had to pay their taxes first each year, before keeping any for themselves, tax freedom day would be the date on the calendar you would actually start doing that. The average Alberta family pays $64,566 annually in taxes, which works out to 37% of total income. If you wonder where it all goes, 67.3% is passed on to the Fed's, 26.3% stays with the province and only 6.4% trickles down to municipalities. As tax freedom day demonstrates, Canada doesn't have an income crisis - but a spending 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 - New Issue Profitability The new issue market is heating up again. Lots of companies are deciding that the timing is right to transition from private to publicly owned. Coming to the market for the first time and issuing shares is exciting because it gives investors the ability to participate in new opportunities. The important question - “Will these new issues make money for investors?” Between 1980 and 2024, companies that were profitable before they went public saw their shares over the next three years increase by 33.6%. Companies that weren't profitable before going public actually saw their shares decline by 1/2 a percent over the same period. If you buy new issues that are already profitable - it is more likely, so will you. 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's Poor Economic Performance Canada has become a world leader. Unfortunately it is in the areas you don't want to be ranked. Our nations finances have deteriorated faster than any country in the G7 over the last decade. And if we expand this comparison to a larger group of the 40 most advanced economies worldwide, the results are very similar. Canada experienced the 2nd highest increase in its size of government and the 3rd highest increase in its overall debt burden, from 2014 to 2024. Canada's fiscal discipline used to be the envy of the world - today as we sit in recession…not so much. 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 - Battery Storage Companies that specialized in making lithium ion batteries have had sluggish sales growth the last few years. The problem is both from the batteries high cost and their limited capacity. But that is changing. As costs have come down and storage capacity gone up, batteries have found a whole new market besides electric cars. It has become economic for producers of renewable energy, like wind and solar, to store their surplus power in battery units for later use. Energy storage made up only 2% of percent of battery sales five years ago. China's CATL, the world's biggest battery maker, expects energy storage to account for half of its global output by 2030. This presents investors with a whole new avenue of growth. 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 Term Lame Duck It appears that peace talks between Iran and the US are going nowhere. This also seems to be true regarding Canada's free trade negotiations with the United States. One of the reasons both are stalled could be the American mid term elections in November. If current polling of voter preferences is even remotely accurate, the Democrats are expected to gain a majority in the House of Representatives replacing Trump's Republicans. If this happens, it is going to be much harder for Trump to push through legislation. Dealing with a lame duck president might be a better situation for both Iran and Canada than they are facing right now - so why not wait. 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 Aristocrats & Kings One of the ways to measure how durable a companies profits are, is to look at its dividend history. Dividends are the portion of a companies earnings that get paid out to shareholders in cash. The premise, is, that unless profits are going up, the company eventually runs out of money to increase the dividend. In the US, there are 57 companies currently which have increased their dividends annually for at least 50 years. They are often referred to as Dividend Kings. In Canada, which is a smaller market, we only have two companies that meet this criteria, but there are another 11 that have hiked their dividends every year for the last 30. If you want to build a quality portfolio, looking at companies with long histories of dividend increases is a great place to start. 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 - Tariffs & China America's annual trade deficit with China today stands at roughly $202 billion US dollars. That is down from its peak only four years ago of twice that much. For Europe the numbers are going the other way. Their current $360 billion dollar trade imbalance with China has grown by 89% over the last decade. Europe, used to ridicule America for the tariffs and restrictions it used to put the brakes on Chinese imports. Now that Europe's trade numbers have swung sharply in China's favor, Europe is actively looking to do the same thing. The world is moving from free to managed trade. It has to, when dealing with countries like China, who don't honour patents, heavily subsidize state owned business and restrict imports. 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 - Immigration & Employment People are seeing, how slowing immigration growth, has helped ease home rental costs. Yet, very little has been said about how slowing population growth has also boosted Canadian employment numbers. Baby boomers are retiring in hoards. Last year saw 26k workers retire every month. That gap has to be filled. Caps on temporary residents has reduced the supply of workers from abroad. That hole is being filled with local workers, causing the unemployment rate to drop. This is welcome relief for a country that is suffering economically from American tariffs. 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 Underground Economy One of the reasons it is so hard to make economic predictions, is because there is so much information that analysts don't have much data on, despite their show of confidence. One of those factors is the black market or underground economy. That is a part of the financial plumbing, where trade and employment are neither reported nor taxed. And globally those numbers are huge. In developed nations, 17% of all economic activity is underground. In developing nations, that figure rises to a 1/3. When you have such a huge chunk of global financial activity going unreported, economic predictions are hard to get right. 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 - Governments Subsidize Key Industries COVID helped us to realize that having local suppliers of essential products is important. That is why governments are working hard to reshore production of critical items like drugs, medical supplies, rare earths, chemicals and batteries. To fast track the transition, governments are buying shares in companies, guaranteeing to purchase finished products, and like the Chinese, erecting walls to keep the competition out. Investors should be paying attention. When governments financially support you and block the competition, this is often a recipe for big 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 - Country Subsidies China has an investment strategy it took three decades for the west to figure out. Beijing, looked for the next generation of promising industries like electric cars, batteries, solar and communications technology. They then supported start up companies in these key sectors with subsidies that allowed them to produce products cheaper than any of their competitors. This forced the competition out of business and left China controlling the market. We are starting to wake up and change our policy. The west is now investing directly in rare earths, nuclear fuel processing and computer chip manufacturing. Expect the number of countries doing this, and the key industries they support to expand. 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 - 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.