Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Defence Stocks Defence stocks have the political and economic winds at their back. Countries in Europe and Asia, have ramped up defence spending out of fear that the US could walk away from commitments to protect them. They have little trust, in the intentions of China, Russia, North Korea or Persia. Current wars, like Iran and Ukraine, are draining equipment and munitions faster, than countries can manufacture them. The use of drones and robots, is reshaping how wars are fought, and starting a whole new spend cycle to develop and build them. It may be a depressing view of our human frailties, but in uncertain times, conflicts heat up and defence spending rises right along with 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 - America Still The Cleanest Dirty Shirt Investors, have been diversifying their portfolios outside of the US for two reasons. They dislike President Trump's bullying, and they worry that America is declining as an economic power. Yet, even though its numbers are weakening, the US is still the cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry. Five years ago, America's total economic output was $23 trillion dollars. Today, that figure has climbed to $30 trillion, and now accounts for more than the total economic output of the next 6 G7 nations combined. America's growth, even though weaker, is leaving other western nations in the dust. Uncle Sam, for all its problems, still provides some of the world's best and most consistent growth opportunities. It is not all doom and gloom. 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 Chinese Real Estate Bubble Chinese love to own real estate. This countries investors have 70% of their assets in property, 20% in bank deposits and insurance policies and only 10% in the stock market. Yet even as the bubble grew, few people in 2016, took Chinese President Xi Jinping seriously, when he warned that houses were for living in, not speculation. Chinese policies, designed to take the air out of real estate, really started to bite in 2021. Property values over the next four years fell by 40%. Remember Humpty Dumpty. After he fell off the wall, all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put him back together again. The Chinese, are finding that bubbles are easy to pop, but are much harder, and take much longer to fix. 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 Military Mistakes I think hindsight will show, that what caused the Republicans to lose their majorities in the House and/or the Senate this November, were the mistakes Trump made in his unexpected war with Iran. The first, was thinking that he could win the fight with Air Power alone. That has never happened. The second was believing that Iran's leadership would bow to his threats. The shaky two week truce, just agreed to, caves in to most of Iran's demands. And finally, he expected the west would come running to his aid with their navies - they didn't. This will be an expensive lesson for him, and even more so for investors and 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 - The Fog of War 200 years ago, a Prussian military strategist nailed it, when he coined the phrase fog of war. He noted that three-quarters of the factors on which wars are based, are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. This is eerily similar to the current conflict in Iran. The newsfeed continuously comes out with statements that are often contradicted in minutes by the other side or even themselves. The truth is, no one has a clue about the ultimate consequences of this war. Not Trump. Not the Iranian's. Investors trying to build an investment strategy based on this wars lies, inuendo and false flags - face a wall of unknowns. Wait till the fog clears, then pull the trigger. 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 - Busts & Booms In the dot-com boom of the late 1990's, telecoms laid 130 million kilometres of fiber optic cable. In the following bust, 85% of this capacity went unused and bandwidth prices fell by 90%. While this drove telecoms like Global Crossing into bankruptcy, cheap access to fibre optic cable, fuelled the rise of early Internet adopters like Netflix and Facebook. Could we see a similar dynamic playing out today? Tech firms are investing an expected 7 trillion dollars building out AI infrastructure, yet no one has a clue how this will be profitable. If the boom goes bust, it will be interesting to see which companies will be able to profit from access to cheap AI, without having to risk the large capital outlays needed to develop 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 - Markets & Tides One of the most important things investors need to understand, is how markets behave, both on the way up and on the way down. Probably the best way to visualize this, is to look at how the tide affects ships in a harbour. When the tide comes in, it raises all the ships, no matter how big or small they are. The same thing happens when the tide goes out. All boats sink. When the economy suffers through a recession and stocks enter a bear market, there are very few things that go up or even maintain their value. Even conservative investments like utilities and insurance companies can get hurt. The trick when markets get expensive, is to be more cautious and limit the downside. Cash is King. 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 - Wars Neverendum According to Trump, the war with Iran should be wrapped up within a month or so. But this could be naive. A financial commentator from the UK wisecracked that the hardest part of a 4 week war is the first 6 to 7 years. The grim reality is, they usually become a neverendum. America was in Vietnam - 20+ years. Russia in Afghanistan - 10 years. America in Iraq - 20+ years. America in Afghanistan - 19 years, 10 months. Russia in Ukraine - 12 years and counting. We continually underestimate the economic damage and inflation these long term wars cause. And pathetically, when we spend a fortune to remove a bad guy, they often get replaced by someone even worse. 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 - Fertilizer Squeeze People worry that high oil prices caused by the war in Iran will lead to rising inflation and interest rates. Very few pay attention to this conflicts impact on global fertilizer prices. Roughly 1/3 of all internationally traded fertilizer passes through the 40 km wide Strait of Hormuz just off Iran's south west coast. This narrow bottleneck has been blocked with mines and drone attacks - grinding shipping to a halt. This couldn't come at a worse time, as farmers in the Northern hemisphere gear up for the spring planting season. With lower fertilizer inputs, yields will drop and food prices go up. This might not show up at your grocery today. The big impact will hit in late summer and fall, when this years crops start appearing on store shelves. 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 Makes Stuff Up When Artificial intelligence makes stuff up that isn't true, and presents it with a such a high degree of confidence it seems believable - they call this AI Hallucinations. There are plenty of documented stories where AI has cited legal cases that never happened, quoted non-existent scientific studies, generated fake biographies, or misidentified objects in images, seemingly on purpose. The weird thing, is that often, experts are mystified as to why, and how this happens. If you are using AI to do financial research, it is important to fact check the data. AI has made enormous strides in the last 12 months, but its accuracy still needs work. 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 Integrated Oils Energy companies that focus strictly on finding and producing oil, have earnings that are pretty much held hostage by whatever the price of crude is at any given time. Those wanting a more defensive and less volatile way to invest in fossil fuels should look at the integrateds. These companies produce oil, refine it and also sell finished products. When crude prices are high, upstream assets that produce the stuff, generate big profits. When prices dip, downstream refining and fuel stations benefit from lower feedstock costs and steady consumer demand. This “natural hedge,” helps firms maintain their dividend and stock buyback programs, even during periods of market volatility. 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 - Diversify Beyond the US After decades of dominance, the influence of the American dollar has begun to fade. Countries have increasingly looked at paying for imports and exports with other currencies like the Yuan, Euro or Yen. Central banks have steadily reduced their holding of greenbacks and replaced them with gold and other currencies. Investors have diversified exposure from US stocks, and added precious metals and foreign securities to their portfolios. Foreign attraction to the US dollar has slowly lessened and this looks to be a long term trend. If there was ever a time for Canadian investors to diversify their foreign holdings beyond the US - it is now. 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 Reality Check For years the tech sector outperformed virtually everything else. Lately not so much. The change has come about, because investors have adopted much more realistic expectations about the future. They want proof that the trillions being spent on artificial intelligence, will produce consistent profits down the road. They also want a better understanding of how software companies will survive without having their lunch eaten by these new technologies. Having a dose of reality injected into these overly exuberant markets is always a good thing. It keeps bubbles from forming, and all the bad outcomes they bring. 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 - Wars & Deficits Wars are expensive. America's recent misadventures in Iran are expected to cost at least $100 billion and could go much higher if the battle drags on. These numbers don't include the extra costs that business and consumers have to pay when the price of oil doubles and inflation rises. Nor, does it factor in the increases to America's $37 trillion dollar federal debt, which amounts to more than $250,000 per household. The deceptive thing about wars is - they go much longer, cost much more, and end much worse, than the optimistic projections touted at their beginning. If this conflict tips the globe into recession, the financial costs will go much, much 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 - Alligator Investing I remember a tour we took down a croc infested river in East Africa. Our tour guide pointed out an enormous crocodile sunning itself on the bank, and said that if this predator ambushed a big animal like a wildebeest, it could go for 6 months without having to eat again. In the financial world, we call this type of investor an alligator. They sit and patiently wait, sometimes for years, for an opportunity that has crashed and burned. Only then, do they swoop in and purchase a huge position at a giveaway price. Currently, we mostly see day traders, scurrying in and out making small profits on lots of trades. People forget, that the alligators are the ones who usually score the big 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 - China's Export Hustle While Canadians worry about protecting the home market, China is reaching out and conquering the world. A good example is electric vehicles. A decade ago they were barely a blip on the radar screen, but by building a quality product at a bargain price, and then globally doing the hard work of knocking on lots of foreign doors, they have achieved global dominance. Last year, China exported 2.6 million EV's to 150 different countries and territories. The value of these exports was $70 billion - up 43% from the previous year. If Canada wants to improve global exports, there is lots we can learn from China's example. 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 - China's Nuclear Growth The 800 Ib gorilla in the nuclear space is China. Of the 74 reactors under construction in 15 countries, China represents over 50% of new builds. China currently has 38 reactors under construction, 43 planned, and 145 proposed. They can achieve their growth targets because of speedy development. It takes only 5-7 years to build a reactor in China versus 10-15 in the west. China, also has the ability to construct them 35% cheaper than the US and 50% cheaper than Europe. At this rate, China will overtake the US to have the largest nuclear reactor fleet by 2030. The lesson here is, unless the west can learn to build things on budget and on time, China will leave us in the proverbial dust. 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 Super Bowl Indicator The Super Bowl Indicator was developed by a sports journalist at the New York Times. It says that if a team from the National Football Conference wins the big game, stock markets will go up, whereas a win by an American Football Conference (AFC) team, signals a bear market. During the thirty year period between 1967 and 1997 it had a stellar success rate of 90%. Over the next 29 years, its predictive accuracy has been terrible, slumping to around 40%. Considering that the markets go up 2/3's of the time and down a 1/3, your odds of winning are higher if you just buy and hold stocks rather than using the Super Bowl Indicator to predict when to get in or out of the market. 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 - Iran's Big Economic Risk President Trump has repeatedly said, that the military campaign in Iran is almost complete. Unfortunately, the Persian's don't seem to agree with that assessment. They mined the 40 km wide Strait of Hormuz, through which passes over 20% of the world's daily oil supply and effectively brought tanker traffic to a standstill. If it remains closed for any length of time, their prediction that oil could hit $200 a barrel and send the global economy into a recession becomes a likely possibility. Trump doesn't seem to understand, that when backed into a corner, countries will do desperate things that hurt themselves economically, but damage others even 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 - AI vs Software Software is a code or set of instructions, that tells a computer what to do and how to do it. For decades software companies have had the wind at their backs. As more and more sophisticated technology got developed, better software was needed for it to communicate with everything else out there. The threat to all this … is AI. Investors worry that artificial intelligence will make software companies redundant by doing their job much cheaper and faster. As a result, many software stocks have seen huge drops in price. Is this the time to jump in and go bargain hunting? That is a tough question, because opinions are all over the map. 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 Backed Reserve Crypto One of the reasons gold has had such an incredible run, is the growing belief among financial types, that cryptocurrency backed by the yellow metal, could eventually replace the US dollar, as the world's reserve currency. Its creation would be outside government control, allow borderless monetary transactions and importantly, would not be backed by any debt choked fiat currency. This is certainly not something that will happen tomorrow. But as the world becomes more and more sceptical about US foreign policy, and its rapidly deteriorating financial situation, the need to develop a financial infrastructure to eventually replace it, becomes more urgent. 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 Risk Gets Riskier Bull markets follow a predictable pattern. In their early stages, money flows into high quality investments. As they become overvalued, investors look at the next rung down for things that haven't yet participated in the rise. These are usually lower quality and higher risk. This self reinforcing loop continues until even the most volatile, risky assets have been discovered and become fully valued. When the good times end, these risky, volatile assets, are the first to drop and also experience the biggest slide. As this bull market gets long in the tooth, it is important for investors to do an inventory of their holdings. Nobody wants to get caught being overexposed to risk … when markets tumble. 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 - Valuing Bitcoin Bitcoin has traded between a high of $123,000 and a low of $63,000 over the last 12 months. The question is, how do you value whether it is cheap, and time to buy, or expensive, and time to sell. Bitcoin has no physical assets, no sales, no profits or patents. Nothing that gives us a set of metrics, or way to calculate its worth. Its value, is whatever the majority of buyers and sellers think it is at any given time, and that number can change dramatically over even short periods. This makes Bitcoin a very controversial investment. Because there is no conventional way to gauge its worth, your guess as to a fair price, is probably as good as anyone else's. 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's Golden Era These are very exciting times for holders of gold stocks. Four years ago, the spread between a gold miners production costs, and what they could sell their product for, left them with a profit of about $600 US per ounce. Today with gold around $5000, their profits have ballooned to $$3500 per ounce - almost 6 times higher. These are the biggest profit margins in modern history and leave gold miners with extra cash to raise dividends, buy back stock, pay down debt and grow production. All of which are shareholder friendly. For miners of the yellow metal, this is truly a golden era. 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 - Estate Sale Bargains Virtually every time I go shopping on Amazon or at a retail store, I came away with sticker shock, shaking my head in disbelief at how fast prices have climbed in the last few years. This unaffordability, has caused a resurgence in discount, next to new, and second hand transactions, as people look for ways to stretch their dollars. One area that shouldn't be overlooked are estate sales. As boomers pass on or downsize, an enormous amount of items are coming up for sale. Boomers, or the kids who inherit this pile of stuff, just want to get rid of the clutter, and are incentivized to move it - often at bargain 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 - The Seven Trillion Dollar Question To make Artificial Intelligence a functioning global reality, requires enormous resources. The cost for all the AI programs, data centres, computers, semiconductors and electrical generating infrastructure is expected to reach 7 trillion dollars over the next decade. What no one seems to be asking, is where are the profits going to come from to pay for all of this. Even a profit margin of 10%, which is less than 1/2 of what tech companies normally expect, would mean these assets need to generate 700 billion in profits annually - an enormous sum. Can they do it? Investors are betting 7 trillion dollars the answer is yes. 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 - USMCA Will Be A Grind Canadian's have pushed stock markets ever higher. Pricing them to perfection and assuming that nothing could happen to disrupt their rosy economic outlook. People for the moment are ignoring the very difficult round of trade negotiations with Mexico and the US, starting in less than four months. Trump has made numerous derogatory remarks about Canada and our Prime Minister has made comments about the US that have further escalated things. Markets don't like the tough, the grinding, the brutal - but that is exactly what these talks are expected to be. Investors might want to temper their bullish enthusiasm until they get a clearer understanding of how these trade negotiations are likely to turn out. 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 - USMCA & Opportunity Under the USMCA trade agreement, the U.S., Canada and Mexico must meet on July 1, 2026, to determine whether to extend the treaty for another 16 years, negotiate changes or withdraw. If they cannot reach consensus, the agreement continues with annual reviews until its scheduled sunset in 2036. Expect there to be a lot of sharp disagreement as Trump has already declared that he is looking for major concessions before he commits to its renewal. It is in these times, investors want to have cash available on the sidelines. Critical meetings with lots of drama, often provide the best buying opportunities of the decade. 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 US Policy Uncertainty Index It might be tempting to seek safety when markets get rattled, but high levels of uncertainty can actually be positive for stocks. There is an index which tracks how investors feel about out the economic times they are in called the U.S. Economic Policy Uncertainty Composite Index. Research over a 40 year period between 1985 and 2025, has shown when levels of uncertainty are high the S&P 500 rises 19% on average. The rest of the time the S&P 500 returns 11.6% annually. Typically, when bad news is commonly known, it is already priced into the markets. This gives investors an opportunity to shop for bargains when prices are down. 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 - Who Is Right? The best descriptor I have heard summarizing the investment outlook for 2026 - is a dumpster fire. The world seems to have gone crazy. Trade friction, a global arms race, regime change in Venezuela, threats of it in Iran, and endless wars in Ukraine and Gaza, have made the world an uncertain place. Even though the year has gotten off to a chaotic start, you would never know it by looking at the markets. Stocks just shrug off the negativity and keep moving from new high to new high. Aggressive investors either know something the rest of us don't, or they will eventually pay the price. Time will tell. 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 - Incomes Need To Catch Up The government has put the brakes on record numbers of people immigrating into Canada. Fewer bodies have lowered demand for everything from health care to groceries. Slower population growth has the effect of reducing inflation and increasing affordability. The good news, is this decision has helped Canadian rents fall 5 months in a row, bringing them down 5.4% over the last two years. The bad news is they are still 14.1% higher than they were in 2019. We need lower inflation and stable prices to continue for a while, so wages and incomes can eventually catch up. 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 Demand Silvers dramatic price moves are a classic example of supply exceeding demand. Silver has few peers when it comes to conducting electricity. Its use in electric cars, solar panels and data centres, means that industrial products are now by far the biggest driver of demand. On the supply side there has been little incentive to produce more, because 72% of silver inventories come as a byproduct of zinc and copper mining not from primary producers. As a result, even when you include recycling, the demand for silver has outstripped its production for the last five 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 - Copper Miner Reluctance If copper usage is expected to increase dramatically, why aren't miners doubling or tripling their efforts to find and develop the resources necessary to keep up with demand. The answer is simply profit. Miners need the price of copper to stay above $11,000 a tonne on a sustained basis to break even on new mines. Currently the orange metal is trading at 20% above that, but miners worry how sustainable that level is. Copper is notorious for its volatility. Soaring prices seldom stick. Copper miners need higher prices for longer before being convinced to invest billions of dollars on what could be a losing bet. For more information listen to our Making Money Podcast with Ron Hiebert and Graham Hicks at letsmakemoney.ca or CWCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Federal Debt Last year Canada enjoyed hitting a number of financial records. The stock market, residential real estate and household wealth reached all time highs. The one crown we shouldn't be proud of, is our Federal Debt. That wall of red ink, according to the Fraser Institute, climbed to an inflation adjusted 2.35 trillion dollars last year. This is the highest level of Federal debt in our history, increasing 4.2% over the previous year. In dollar terms, this works out to $56,432 of Federal debt per person . Next time you talk to someone younger, thank them in advance for paying for something they didn't create or benefit from. 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 - 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.