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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.