Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Economic Spin Spin is a marketing term. Spin takes events, or data, and adjusts them to put you, or your organization, in the best possible light. Politicians, companies, even environmental groups use it often and effectively. An example is Electric Vehicles. The spin says that global adoption of EV's means that peak oil usage is near. The facts without the spin look much different. There are 50 million electric cars operating globally. Their use saves about 1.3 million barrels of oil a day. Global oil consumption exceeds 100 million barrels a day, making their chest thumping, a laugh at best.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Gold's Future Price Investors have been discouraged from buying gold because it is trading at all time highs. However price is only one valuation metric. Historically the value of gold has at times tracked the increase in the amount of money governments print and the inflation it creates. If this metric is used, the price of the yellow metal is still historically cheap. The more money created out of thin air, the higher gold prices can go. Using this methodology, the metals full value could be as high as $9700 US per ounce, giving it plenty of room to run.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Making VS. Keeping Money Making big dollars and keeping the money you made are two very different skill sets. Professional athletes are often great earners but pathetic savers. Nearly four out of 5 retired NFL football players are bankrupt or under financial stress. In the National Basketball Association, 2 out of every three retired players are broke after 5 years. Earning huge amounts of money, tricks you into thinking that the windfall will never end, and there is no need to learn good savings and investment skills. Unfortunately for most, the dream has a sad ending.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - The Tax Benefits of Rebalancing Rebalancing is a technique where you adjust the asset weightings in a portfolio - usually on an annual basis. It is beneficial for two reasons. Rebalancing gets you to sell asset classes that have outperformed and add to those that haven't done as well - in other words sell high and buy low. It also allows you to tax harvest by selling some of the losers in the portfolio. Writing the winners off against these losers has proved beneficial from a performance perspective. Periodic tax harvesting lowers taxes, and has been shown over the long term, to add between 3/4's of a percent to a percent and a half to annual returns.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - elling Is Hard To Do People are not very good at buying stocks, but they are even worse at selling - and that includes the pros. A study between 2000 and 2016, looked at 4.4 million trades done by professional asset managers. They specifically focused on the sell side of these transactions. Whenever the professional manager would sell a security in the portfolio, a computer would hypothetically select a random, different, security and sell it. Astonishingly, the computers random selections, outperformed the sales of professional managers by quite a margin. Buying is hard. Selling is even harder.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Long Term Market Cycles Investors need to understand that stock markets move in extended cycles. Long term bull markets tend to last 15 - 20 years. Long term bear markets run 8 to 15 years. The bull market we are currently in, started in 2013 and is still going. The previous bear market, started in 2000 and ran for 13 years. Within these long bull and bear cycles, markets typically experience shorter term ups and downs, which investors try to trade profitably. However, most investors make money playing the long term trends and don't do so well trying to catch the shorter term movements.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Markets Historically Expensive Two things make stock markets go up. Rising earnings are one. Historically companies have been able to increase their profits by about 6% per year over the long term. The second is investor willingness to pay higher prices to own shares. This second one is the biggest and most volatile factor. Markets are considered reasonable when share prices on average trade at 15 times annual profits and cheap when they are around 12 times. Currently markets are trading at more than twice bargain levels, because investors are feeling bullish. When prices get too far ahead of earnings growth, it is time to be cautious.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - The World Is Complex Beware of politicians with simple solutions to complex economic problems. Take for example the last bout of inflation we had during Covid, when that number went up to 9.5% annually. Political solutions were simple, and fit easily into 30 second sound bits. Perfect for news spots or commercials. But real world problems are seldom that easy to solve. Experts identified at least 15 different causes for that spurt of inflation. People, who offer simple fixes for complex problems, either don't what they are talking about out, or worse, know they are wrong, but continue to spout nonsense in hopes of attracting votes.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Elon Musk Elon Musk has an amazing collection of assets: Tesla - a maker of electric cars, Spacex - the rocket company, Neuralink - which connects the human brain to computers, X - formerly called Twitter, The Boring Company - which digs tunnels and XAI - the arm that develops artificial intelligence and robots. As of last week, the total value of all these companies pushed Musk's net worth above 1/2 a trillion dollars. For perspective, that number is larger than all the goods and services produced by either a Denmark or Norway last year.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Bubble Warnings Bubbles form when a stock sector reaches valuations far exceeding anything these companies can be expected to profitably achieve in the real world. When it finally dawns on investors that hype grossly exceeds reality, they dump their holdings and the bubble pops. Research on 10 different stock bubbles since 1900 shows their average gain was 244%. The current stocks that look frothy, are a group of tech names called the Magnificent 7. They have climbed 225% in the last 2 1/2 years. Mag 7 gains don't necessarily mean the party is over, but yellow caution flags are definitely out.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Sports Memorabilia If you buy right, sports memorabilia can be very profitable. A Mickey Mantle baseball card, sold three years ago for 12.5 million US. Last year, the jersey Babe Ruth wore in the third game of the 1932 World Series went for twenty four million. Recently, Kevin O'Leary, of Shark Tank fame, as part of an investment group, bought an autographed Kobe Bryant/Michael Jordan basketball card for 12.9 million US. The key, is to find something very rare, or someone, before they become really famous.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - A Market That Won't Die This market reminds me of the Russian Monk - Rasputin. In 1914, he was stabbed but survived. Two years later, he was fed cakes laced with cyanide but survived, then given poisoned wine but survived, then shot and survived, and finally shot again and thrown in a frozen river. At that point, he finally drowned. Just like Rasputin, this current bull market has many lives. Tariffs, slowing job growth, consumer weakness, international turmoil and falling real estate values, just can't kill it off. This is leaving a lot of investors scratching their heads wondering what it will finally take to bring this Rasputin bull market to a close?

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - AI Hype The tech bros anticipate spending 3 to 4 trillion dollars building out artificial intelligence infrastructure over the next decade. This total is larger than the combined economic output of Canada and Brazil. The problem is no one is able to tell investors how this will translate into profits for companies outside the tech universe. A disturbing MIT study recently showed that only about 5% of companies deploying artificial intelligence were able to squeeze any profits out of its use. Right now the hype far outweighs the sobering reality. Investors need to be cautious.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Chinese Cars & Tariffs The reason we put high tariffs on Chinese cars, is they would totally crush our domestic industry if we let them in. For example, BYD, China's largest vehicle maker, released a car a couple of months ago that cost roughly $19,000 Canadian dollars. This gas electric hybrid is so efficient that it will run 2000 kilometres on a tank of fuel. This makes it the most efficient vehicle in its class by 50%. We have nothing in the west that is comparable on price or efficiency. The only way for us to compete is either with better, cheaper products, or using tariffs to keep them out. It looks like tariffs win.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Economic Growth & Stock Markets Stock investors often look at countries economic growth rates as a signal of where to invest. Obviously the higher the growth rate, the more likely stock market returns will move right along with it. But this isn't always the case. China has had the highest economic growth of any major economy for decades, but its stock markets have gone no where. The US on the other hand has had the world's most dynamic stock markets over the last ten years. Yet during this time, growth has been slowing. Stock market performance is complex and can't be reduced to a simple formula.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Mining Stock Debt Among the most important considerations when investing in mining companies, are for them to be well financed and have strong balance sheets. Running out of cash, often results in selling shares at fire sale prices, diluting existing shareholder interests. If researching a junior mining company, it is safest if they have a major partner who has agreed to pay for drilling or other development work, in exchange for a percentage interest in the property. Because commodities go through extended periods of low prices, mining stocks need strong balance sheets and low debt to survive.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - 2025 Political Risk When looking at resource companies like mining or energy - where you invest is critical. Avoid companies operating in politically unstable regions, such as the Congo and Venezuela, or in countries with little respect for property rights and the rule of law such as Tanzania, Russia or Mongolia. Resources are a politically vulnerable business; you can't move a mine or well to another country, once the infrastructure is in place, there are few options when the host country tries to extort the asset, or take most of the profits. Just like real estate, it is all about, location, location, location.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Why Booms Go Bust When investors get excited about a trend with blockbuster potential, they often over invest. After an idea gets flooded with too much cash, investors seldom get a return that justifies the amount put in. Imagine spending $300,000 to restore a classic car, only to discover when you are finished, that the best price you will be able to get at auction is $50,000. When reality hits that the money spent greatly exceeds the investments return potential, the herd rushes to the exit, panic selling for whatever little they can recover.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Options Stock options are risky. Most investors that speculate on them lose money. Unlike common shares, options have limited lifespans. You can hold common stocks indefinitely in the hope that their value may rise, but options have an expiration date. If an option is not sold or exercised prior to the end date, it becomes worthless. For this reason, an option is considered a wasting asset. As each day passes, the time window to make money decreases. To profit trading stock options, you have to be right in three different ways: price direction, the magnitude of price-change, and the time frame. This is easier said than done.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Genius or Inside Trader? If asked who you thought we're the world's best investors, you would probably come up with names like Warren Buffett or John Templeton. The truth is … they have been left in the dust by a most unlikely group - US politicians. A company called Quiver Quantitative, launched an ETF, which tracks and buys the stocks most heavily owned by members of Congress. Their picks were up 37%, whereas US markets, gained only 25% over the same period. These people are either the smartest investors on the planet, or trading on information the rest of us don't have. Which do you think?

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - The Permanent Portfolio If you want to invest, but worry a bear market could chew a big hole in your nest egg, there are options that provide reasonable returns with limited volatility. One of them was developed by a financial guy named Harry Browne called the Permanent Portfolio. You divide your nest egg into 4 equal piles, and put 25% into a domestic long term bond ETF, 25% in a domestic short term bond etf, 25% in a gold etf, and 25% in a Canadian stock index ETF. After that, the only work required, is to rebalance once a year. Over 3 decades, this portfolio has averaged greater than 6% a year. Its worst annual drop during the period, was only 10%.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Investing When Things Tank Some economists think we are in a debt super cycle. This is where government borrowing exceeds not only the ability to repay the loans, but even make the interest payments on them. Eventually a crisis unfolds, causing central banks to bail out their governments by printing money. The aftermath, is inflation and currency depreciation. If this happens, tangible assets are where you want to be - things like precious metals, real estate and commodities. In a crisis, stocks decline and recover slowly. Gold shines, beating bonds by 71%. If the economy tanks, it is important for investors to have a plan B.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Tariffs Aren't A New Thing US Tariffs, have the same impact, as our federal Goods and Service Tax, and the Provincial Sales Tax. They are a tax on consumption. You pay it when you purchase items and spend money. Tariffs are not a new source of government revenue. Before 1914, tariffs, or custom duties, as they were then called, were the primary source of income for the Canadian government. They accounted for over 85% of total revenue in the early 20th century. It was only at the outbreak of World War I, that Canada added corporate and personal taxes to pay for the war.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Tariffs & Inflation The idea that the US economy is going to experience hyper inflation because of tariffs, completely disregards the numbers. America imports about 3 trillion dollars worth of goods each year - a big number yes. However the size of the US economy totally dwarfs the impact of imports. America ‘s economic output, is ball park 30 trillion a year. This means imports represent about 10 percent of economic activity. Of course, higher tariffs will lead to higher prices and higher inflation - but the impact is not nearly as great as the alarmists predict.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Stock Market Warning Signs Investors are experiencing financial euphoria as they watch stock markets move from record high to record high. Just as parties don't last forever, markets are showing signs, things are getting speculative. The first, is the amount of borrowing taking place to invest in stocks. This number is at all time highs. The other worrisome sign, is the army of small retail investors currently piling into the markets. They typically show up, near, or at the peaks - when the party is almost over. Yellow lights are flashing - signalling it is time to be careful around the speculative stuff.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Tough Choices For The Disrupted If you have a business, or are invested in one that has been technologically leap frogged, the competition now has the economic advantage. To get back in the game requires some uncomfortable and risky choices. The company can either adopt the new technology, leap frog over it and come up with a better mousetrap, bail on the sector and look for greener pastures, or, continue to have market share taken away, until it goes bust. Technology disruption is one of the biggest risks modern companies face. Investors need to watch for it, and be ready to wave goodbye at the first sign a business is losing its edge.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Blue Chips The term blue chip, actually has its origins, in the game of poker. It refers to the chip with the highest value. In the world of investing, “blue chips” are considered to be well-established, large, and financially sound companies that have a history of consistent performance and profitability. These stocks are often industry leaders, and viewed as relatively safe investments. For conservative investors, a blue chip portfolio, is also the one with the highest value. It gives solid returns with the least risk.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Reshoring Opportunities Reshoring, is the term used to describe companies bringing a chunk of their business back home from outside the country. The problem with Reshoring to a place like United States or Canada, is that labor costs are generally so high, that products made there, aren't competitive in the global market place. The only way many domestic factories can compete, is for them to be automated. Reshoring might bring manufacturing back home, but jobs aren't likely. The big winners will be the companies that construct the factories and automate them.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Beef Prices If you have bought steaks recently for a summer barbecue, you probably got sticker shock at the cash register. The number of cattle in this country has fallen in recent years. Ranchers, have faced rising costs due to increased feed prices, and drought conditions. Because it hasn't been financially lucrative to raise beef, ranchers have let their herds dwindle down to their lowest level since 1987. But the cattle cycle, which runs 12 years trough to trough, looks like it could be bottoming. It might take a few years, but as supply increases, prices should start coming down again

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Tariff History Repeats Canadians are shocked at Trump's tariff threats - but it is not like this drama hasn't played out before. On March 17, 1866, Washington let the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 lapse. This document allowed free trade between Canada and the US in most commodities. Its collapse came over concerns of potential annexation by the US, Britain's perceived support for the confederate south in the Civil War, and protectionist sentiment. Most of these reasons sound familiar today. That lapse in free trade, caused the Canadian economy to experience a severe recession. Let's hope things turn out different this time.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Sports Betting Sports betting, whether through neighbourhood hockey pools, or legalized online gambling sites like Draft Kings, is growing exponentially. It is also diverting two of peoples most important assets - their time and money - into non productive activity. Households that bet on sports regularly, routinely see their savings rates drop by 14%. Researching favourite teams or players, can easily suck up precious hours a day. Just think how much further ahead people would be, if they devoted the same time, resources, and energy to investing

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - The Bucket List A bucket list is a number of experiences or achievements a person wants to accomplish in their lifetime. During our adult years, it can be hard to find the time to do them because relationships, family, work and financial obligations often get in the way. For most, the ideal time to fulfill some of these dreams is in retirement. The drawback is often funding. That is why it is important to make a list of the things you want to do in retirement, and build those costs into your financial planning. By doing so, you will both have the time and the money, to turn those dreams into reality.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - 20 Punch Card Rule Warren Buffett has often spoken about the 20 punchcard rule as a cornerstone of his investment philosophy. Imagine you had a card numbered 1-20, and every time you made an investment, one of those numbers was punched. The card lasted a lifetime, so each of the twenty investments had to represent an extraordinary opportunity. This approach focuses investors time and energy on finding quality and long term value, over quantity and short term trading. The 20 punchcard rule is all about making your investment choices really count

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Make America Solvent Again MAGA stands for Make America Great Again, and is the rallying cry for all things Trump. But it is political theatre -a dream world. The US is a country that has 37 trillion in Federal Debt and another $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities like, Medicaid, Medicare and various pension plans. Their Federal government receives 5 trillion dollars in tax revenue each year, but overspends that number by 2 trillion dollars annually. In reality, America's revenue is puny compared to its debt and social obligations. Before America becomes great again, they need to first think about MASA - Make America Solvent Again.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Investors Find Greener Pastures The Canada Pension Plan is our countries 800 pound financial gorilla. It manages over 700 billion dollars in retirement funds for Canadians. The places they invest our dollars, speaks volumes as to where they think the best money making opportunities lie. Four years ago, the CPP had 16% of its total funds invested in Canadian securities. Today, that number is down to 12%. Over the same time period, CPP has increased its exposure to both the US and Europe. Foreigners and domestic investors have also been moving money elsewhere. We are going to need more than just “elbows up”, to get them back.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Saving Vs Earning People spend enormous amounts of time and effort doing investment research, hoping to improve their returns. The financial world is so crowded with investors trying to do the same thing, that beating the markets, is now almost impossible to do. Because of this performance focus, people often miss the low hanging fruit - the easy ways to increase returns. Maximizing any strategy that will lower taxes is one. The other, is focusing on products that reduce management fees. Both help increase returns, because saving a buck, is far easier than earning one.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Broadening The Tax Base Our progressive tax rates are currently structured, so that the top 20% of Canadian income earners, pay 57% of total taxes collected in Canada. The bottom 20% of Canadian income earners, pay 2% of total taxes. The idea that high income earners manage to find loopholes, and get away with not paying their fair share just doesn't mesh with reality. Shouldn't we figure out how to get the bottom 20% the skills they need to get good paying jobs, so they could contribute as well. The solution is to broaden the tax base not shrink it.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Synthetic Biology We marvel at the incredible breakthroughs in computing power and artificial intelligence that seem to be getting all the press lately. What has been ignored, are the advances being made in synthetic biology. Scientists at a company called Cortical Labs have recently grown a crude sort of biological brain in a vat. They taught it to play an arcade game that came out in the 70's called Pong. Elon Musk's company, NeuralLink, is developing technology that will directly interface our brains with computers. Both society and investors are facing a brave new world.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Capitalism The Good & The Bad Over the past decade it has become fashionable to bash capitalism and private business as the consummate evil. Often ignored, are the exponential improvements to the human condition that man's drive to increase profits has produced. At the beginning of the 1800's, just about everyone lived in extreme poverty. Today, that number globally sits at around 9%. In the last two hundred years, economic output is up 300 times and even including massive population increases, is up 13 times per person. Capitalism has its flaws, but has also achieved amazing triumphs.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Growth Stocks - The Ups & Downs The top 20 US growth stocks had blistering performance over the last 40 years, earning an annual return of 19.3% a year. This handily beat the S&P 500's 11.8% per year. However, big returns were accompanied with big volatility. These 20 stocks went through rough patchs during their 4 decade history, that drove their share price down by 72% on average, and took 4.8 years to recover. Growth stocks put up great numbers, but to play in this arena, investors will only benefit from the ups, if they can stomach their wild downside as well.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Oilsand Productivity Gains For most of their existence, companies that processed crude from oilsand deposits, had some of, if not the highest production costs among global competitors. Now, due to cutting edge use of robotics, artificial intelligence, self driving vehicles, and dramatically reduced shut downs for maintenance, that has changed. Oilsand producers have driven their breakeven costs down to the low 40 dollars US per barrel. American shale producers have costs in the low $60's, giving us a $20 per barrel price advantage. For more information, listen to our Making Money podcast, hosted by Ron Hiebert and Gord Whitehead at letsmakemoney.ca or CFCW.com.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Robots & Reshoring People don't believe that the reshoring of manufacturing back to the US will work, because labor costs are too high, making products here uncompetitive in price. And that is true. But what about if labour is replaced by machines? Artificial intelligence and robots have made incredible advances in the last few years. Machines don't need breaks. Don't need overtime, paid vacations or sick leave. They work 24 hours a day - seven days a week. AI can make manufacturing competitive again, but factories will be much different than they are today.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Mag 7 Performance Stock market returns have been overwhelmingly influenced by a small number of companies. Over the past decade, the S&P 500's performance has been driven almost entirely by the “Magnificent 7”: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. During this 10 year period, the MAG 7 group of tech stocks has had an annual average compound return of 47%. If you didn't own this group, your performance was left in the dust. The average return of the remaining shares in the S&P 500 was just 7% per year.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Trump's Unpredictability People think that Trump's repeated u turns on tariffs, deadlines, peace initiatives and trade strategies is a symptom of a deranged mind. They might be right. Or it could be that Trump is using unpredictability as a strategy. Keeping people off balance and not knowing how to respond, often gives him an advantage when negotiating. I have seen this approach used many times in big real estate transactions. It usually doesn't win any friends or earn much respect, but it can be very effective in helping get what you want out of a deal.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Financial EQ Versus IQ A prevailing myth is that the greater a persons IQ, the better they will do financially. Research shows that EQ, or emotional maturity, is much more important to wealth creation than IQ. We all know lots of people who are pretty average intellectually but have done amazingly well financially. IQ isn't something we can do much to improve. EQ is the opposite. The better we get at controlling the destructive effects of greed and fear, the better we will do as investors. This means there is hope, for most of us to improve our wealth building skills.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - A Tempest In A Teapot Canadian's don't like being bullied and are upset by Trump's overtures to make Canada the 51st state. These emotions have spilled over into the news cycle and have blown Trump's tariff threats way out of proportion to their economic impact. Our central bank says 100% of energy exports and 95% of other exports are free trade compliant. The Royal Bank estimated that almost 90% of Canadian exports appear to have accessed the U.S. market, duty free in April. Trump is getting exactly what he wants out of these threats - a fear - that is many times greater than their actual impact.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Voters To Blame America's equivalent to our Canada Pension plan is in a sorry state. Most estimates have it running out of money in 10 years or less. If that happens, the average US pensioner will see a cut in their benefits by over 20%. Citizens blame government leaders for not having the courage to do anything about it. But the real problem is the voter. Any political candidate who wants to raise taxes, decrease retirement benefits, or raise the age to start receiving those benefits would be wiped out in the next election. The tragedy, is that our leaders will never be any better than the people who elect them.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Dining Out Most of you remember a time when dining out in a restaurant was a big deal. Like most things, times and preferences have changed. Today, nearly 75% of all restaurant traffic happens off premise - meaning that almost 3 out of every 4 restaurant orders are taken to go. As usual Millennials and Gen Z are driving the trend with 6 out of 10 of them using take out at least once a week. If you own restaurant stocks, it is important that those companies are keeping up with intergenerational dining trends. If they aren't, they will be left in the dust.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Buy The Haystack In some sectors it is hard for even professionals to spot companies early in their corporate lives that will become huge winners - think Microsoft, Apple or Amazon. John Bogle, an early pioneer in ETF's and low fee mutual funds, had some great advice. He said, “ instead of trying to find the needle in a haystack - just buy the entire haystack. In other words, own a basket of stocks rather than just one individual name. For growth or tech holdings, this can be as easy as, buying a Nasdaq Exchange Traded Fund. This Index has gone up 15 times in the last 16 years.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Selling & Tax Sometimes people want to sell a stock because they are worried markets will drop significantly and their profits will disappear. But before hitting the sell button, it is worth taking some time to do a simple calculation first. If you are sitting on a big profit and think a pullback will be temporary, figure out how much the sale will cost you in taxes. If the tax to be paid, is larger than the amount you think the shares could fall in price, it might be more profitable just to hang on to them. It is not about what you make, but what you get to keep that matters.

Making Money Minute with Ron Hiebert - Making It & Keeping It Making money is hard. But keeping it is even harder. The Forbes 400 is an annual list of the wealthiest American's. Unfortunately getting on the list and staying there involve two entirely different skill sets. Roughly 20% of the names, drop off the list per decade for reasons other than death or family turnover. Extinction is a big factor. Forty percent of all companies that become publicly traded eventually lose all their value over time. Becoming wealthy is fraught with risks. Hanging on to it - seems to have just as many.