After sprinting to record highs, it posted its sharpest drop in years this week as traders took profits and reset their positions. But big moves like that don’t kill a bull market; they clear the deck.

If the longer-term drivers – central bank buying, deficit worries, and a firm dollar trend that can turn – stay in place, the metal still has room. Pullbacks are simply the toll you pay on the highway.

That sets the stage for Barrick Mining (NYSE: B).

Barrick is a diversified operator, not a one-mine bet. It runs Tier One gold assets in Nevada, the Dominican Republic, Tanzania, and Congo, plus a growing copper arm in Zambia and a huge copper-gold project in Pakistan.

The company’s playbook is simple: Keep a strong balance sheet, push costs down, and fund the next wave of growth from internal cash rather than debt or dilutive deals.

Its latest numbers back that up. In the second quarter of 2025, revenue was $3.7 billion. Net earnings were $811 million, or $0.47 per share, with adjusted EPS also $0.47. Attributable EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) hit $1.69 billion with a 55% margin.

Free cash flow was $395 million even as Barrick stepped up spending at Lumwana (the copper mine in Zambia) and Reko Diq (the copper-gold project in Pakistan). The company ended the quarter with $4.8 billion in cash and a small net-cash position of $73 million. Shareholders got a $0.15 quarterly dividend – including a $0.05 enhancement tied to net cash – and $268 million of buybacks during the quarter.

Operations are trending the right way. Gold production rose 5% quarter over quarter. Production at Nevada Gold Mines increased 11% from the first quarter on better grades and throughput, while output jumped 28% in the Dominican Republic as plant upgrades took hold. Copper production climbed 34% as Lumwana improved mining rates and unit costs fell.

Now to the Value Meter breakdown.

On valuation, Barrick’s average EV/NAV is 1.64, versus a universe average of 3.79. That tells us the stock is cheaper than its peers, because you pay less for each dollar of net assets.

On cash efficiency, the company’s average FCF/NAV is 0.84%, versus 1.11% for its peers. That’s a notch worse, meaning Barrick turns assets into free cash a bit less efficiently than the average company in our universe right now.

But there’s more to the story here. On momentum of the cash engine, Barrick’s 12-quarter FCF growth rate is 54.50% versus 46.25% for its peers. That’s better, suggesting cash generation is trending faster than the pack.

What about the stock?

Shares have ripped from the mid-teens last winter to the low $30s now, with a brief spike toward the mid $30s as gold went vertical. (The recent dip tracks the metal’s cooldown more than any change to Barrick’s story.)

If bullion finds support and copper stays firm, Barrick’s blend of low-cost gold and expanding copper should keep free cash flow coming. The pipeline – including the ramp-up in the Dominican Republic, Reko Diq, and a “Super Pit Expansion” at Lumwana – adds real torque to 2026 through 2028 without stretching the balance sheet today.

So aside from the dip in gold prices, this is a quality operator priced below the peer pack with improving operations and a clean balance sheet. For investors who want leverage to the metal without betting the farm, Barrick still looks like the adult in the room.

The Value Meter rates Barrick Mining as “Slightly Undervalued.”

What stock would you like me to run through The Value Meter next? Post the ticker symbol(s) in the comments section below.

The post The Low-Cost Gold Play That Wall Street’s Missing appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

In normal years, more than 40,000 die-hard investors flock to Omaha, Nebraska, this time of year to listen to the wisdom of Buffett and Munger.

This year, the meeting was held virtually, and anyone who wanted to listen to the two legends take questions from shareholders was able to do so for almost six hours via livestream.

I was one of those virtual attendees.

One of the many things I learned was that through Berkshire’s many subsidiary operating businesses, Buffett is seeing what he describes as “very substantial inflation.”

As Berkshire’s CEO, he is in the perfect spot to provide an opinion on how fast inflation is moving.

Name an industry, and Berkshire is involved in it: railroads, real estate, energy generation, insurance, distribution, manufacturing, jewelry sales, confectionary products, vacuum cleaners and so much more.

Buffett constantly receives real-time data on what is happening in the American economy.

So if he sees that inflation is ramping up, then it is happening.

My Generation Has Never Dealt With the Bite of Inflation

For me personally as an investor, inflation is not something I’ve ever had to deal with.

And it isn’t because I’m all that young anymore!

For the past three decades, inflation has been muted in the United States.

As a result, many investors don’t spend a minute worrying about it.

But I bet Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger do, and so do my parents…

In the 1970s and early 1980s, inflation was out of control. It routinely passed 5% per year for more than a decade, reaching as high as 15%.

To appreciate what 15% inflation means to us as investors and savers, think of it this way…

If you start the year with $1 million of cash in your bank account and the country experiences a year of 15% inflation, at the end of that year, your $1 million of cash would be worth only $850,000.

If you get two years of 15% inflation, the purchasing power of that $1 million would be reduced to only $722,500.

Five years of high inflation, and your starting cash pile wouldn’t be worth much at all!

That’s what inflation is, folks – a weakening of the purchasing power of the dollar.

Warren Buffett is seeing serious inflation, and I’m not the least bit surprised.

Central bankers across the world could not have created more risk for runaway inflation if they tried.

Protect Your Wealth Against Inflation

With their magic wands, central bankers conjure up new money by expanding their balance sheets.

Take a look at how the U.S. Federal Reserve’s balance sheet has exploded in size since COVID-19 arrived…

It has doubled in size in a year.

That is concerning.

Then we must also remember that the Fed’s balance sheet was considered bloated going into COVID-19 because of the aggressive response to the 2008 to 2009 global financial crisis.

Central bankers primed the pump for inflation once, and COVID-19 made them double down.

But this extreme balance sheet expansion is unprecedented.

Nobody, including the folks at the Fed, truly knows what the consequences of this kind of monetary policy will be.

The one thing we do know is that the risk of severe, dollar value-destroying inflation has never been higher in our lifetimes.

Having a hedge built into your portfolio is an absolute must.

Personally, I have two favorite inflation hedges built into my portfolio…

1. Financial sector stocks, primarily banks and insurance companies. These businesses are good inflation hedges because rising inflation will drive an increase in interest rates.

   An increase in interest rates will benefit banks and insurance companies that generate interest revenue, which will fatten up their profits.

2. Real estate. My wife and I have been long-term buy-and-hold rental property owners for almost 20 years. Inflation will drive both our property value and rent revenue higher while devaluing the amount of debt we have against these properties.

   We have fixed-rate mortgages, so we aren’t exposed to interest rates moving against us.

Those are the two inflation hedges I own, but a third has me intrigued… cryptocurrency.

I’m not necessarily interested in owning crypto directly because I have no idea where trading prices are going.

Instead, I’m intrigued in owning businesses that will profit from the continued rise in popularity of crypto.

In my mind, the popularity of crypto has a direct relationship to the lack of faith people have in the value of the dollar.

If inflation starts getting out of control, that faith in the dollar is going to be seriously tested…

That is bullish for crypto and the businesses that are tied to it.

Good investing,

Jody

The post Hedge Your Portfolio Against Inflation Now appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.

I had been to the bank many times before with my dad. I loved those trips.

I was fascinated with the little passbook that the bank teller updated every time you made a transaction.

When I was a kid, this was how you kept track of where your bank balance was. You would go into the bank, and the teller would update your passbook with your recent transactions.

I was so excited to get my own passbook.

Every month, I looked forward to going to the bank and getting my passbook updated. With each update, I could see how much interest I earned on my savings account.

Even as a kindergartener, I got a thrill from seeing my money grow on its own. Those monthly interest payments were a great incentive to keep depositing my allowance in the bank.

And in the early 1980s, that savings account kicked out a nice return on my little principal balance. We actually got paid for keeping our money at the bank.

My kids are never going to see a passbook like mine. That makes me a little sad.

But what makes me really sad is that they’ll never see their savings accounts reward them with interest income.

Because of that, they have no incentive to save.

That is a dangerous lesson for their generation – a lesson created by central bankers who, with their low interest rates, are clearly determined to turn us all into spenders, not savers.

The Lowest Interest Rates in 5,000 Years

We are starting to get used to the idea that our money in the bank earns nothing.

We have had a pretty steady diet of near-zero interest rates since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

But this isn’t supposed to be normal…

A couple of years ago, the Bank of England’s chief economist made a speech that included a chart similar to the one below.

This chart shows that interest rates are now the lowest they have been in more than 5,000 years!

Central bankers have broken all financial norms so that they can reward spenders and punish savers.

They have loaded our societies up with so much debt that interest rates have to be absurdly low.

Putting our money in the bank is no longer an effective way to grow our wealth.

My dad taught me about passbook savings accounts and adding money to my account on a regular basis. It was a great lesson on the importance of saving, but the investment vehicle is no longer useful.

Central bankers have changed the rules of the game.

Those of us trying to build our wealth may not like the new rules, but if we want to win, we need to adjust to them.

The stock and bond markets both offer opportunities to compound our wealth and generate income.

We’ll keep putting the best of those opportunities in front of you here at Wealthy Retirement.

Good investing,

Jody

P.S. Know someone who deserves to earn more on their money? Forward them this article by clicking here.

The post How Central Bankers Changed the Rules of the Game appeared first on Wealthy Retirement.