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.