Feb 4th, 2008 by admin1 | 4 Comments
By Jonathan WeismanWashington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 4, 2008; 11:57 AM
President Bush today unveiled a tough-minded, $3 trillion budget proposal for fiscal 2009 that would slice $14.2 billion from the growth of federal health-care programs, eliminate scores of programs and virtually freeze domestic spending — but would still record a $407 billion budget deficit.
This Story
The president’s final budget is a sharp contrast to the priorities of the Democratic-controlled Congress, which is likely to wait out Bush’s presidency rather than accede to many of his demands. The Bush budget plan would continue his first-term tax cuts beyond their 2011 expiration date, at a cost to the Treasury of $635 billion through 2013, extend abstinence education programs, create elementary and secondary education vouchers and guard other White House initiatives.
The president also takes aim at programs that Congress has guarded zealously — and is likely to continue protecting. Among the programs Bush would eliminate are commodity price supports for farmers, research assistance to manufacturers, career and technical education grants, weatherization assistance, community development grants, graduate medical education at children’s hospitals and a public housing revitalization program that the House just overwhelmingly reauthorized.
“In my 2009 Budget, I have set clear priorities that will help us meet our nation’s most pressing needs while addressing the long-term challenges ahead. With pro-growth policies and spending discipline, we will balance the budget in 2012, keep the tax burden low and provide for our national security,” Bush said in his final budget message.
Overall, the budget proposal underscores the precariousness of the federal government’s fiscal position as the demands of the aging baby boom generation begin to climb and an uncertain economy no longer can be expected to churn out tax revenue at a record pace.
The White House foresees the federal budget deficit rising to $410 billion this year, a sharp increase from 2007’s $162 billion deficit. Measured against the size of the economy, the deficit, at 2.9 percent of gross domestic product this year, would be well shy of the deficits of 2003 and 2004.
But, bloated in part by the $150 billion stimulus plan Bush is expecting Congress to pass in the coming weeks, the red ink of 2008 would rival the nominal dollar record of $412.7 billion in 2004. Bush’s budget office projects that the deficit will stay at $407 billion in 2009 before falling sharply, then reaching a surplus in 2012.
Budget analysts and Democrats say the good news in later years is probably illusory. The Bush budget plan makes room for $61 billion in 2009 to stop the growth of the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax system enacted in 1969 to make sure the rich pay income tax that is increasingly squeezing the middle class. The cost of an AMT fix will continue to grow each year, but the budget makes no more allowances for the cost of that fix.
The document also assumes $70 billion in costs for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars next year, a fraction of the true costs, which could reach $200 billion in 2008. Beyond 2009, the budget includes no war costs at all.
Bush also foresees raising $2.1 billion in health-care fees on non-disabled veterans through 2013. A promised crackdown on tax cheats is supposed to raise $10.5 billion over that time.
“We’ve seen this script before,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in a statement. “The President proposes more of the same failed fiscal policies he has embraced throughout his time in office — more deficit-financed war spending, more deficit-financed tax cuts tilted to benefit the wealthiest, and more borrowing from foreign nations like China and Japan. The result can only be the same — a further explosion of debt and the undermining of our nation’s economic security.”
Response to the budget’s toughest proposals was equally fierce from groups that would be affected. Under the budget, funding for after-school education programs, known as 21st Century Learning Centers, would fall from $1.1 billion to $800 million, and Bush proposes to transform the effort from a competitive grant program administered by the states to a system of vouchers given to the parents of participants.
“What he is proposing to do would dismantle after-school programs,” said Jodi Grant, executive director of the Afterschool Alliance.
Under the plan, a $301 million program that trains 4,700 pediatricians and pediatric sub-specialists at children’s teaching hospitals also would be eliminated, at a time when pediatric sub-specialties, such as rheumatology and pulmonology, face critical shortages.
“The request to eliminate funding to train the doctors that care for kids comes on the heels of the president’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program,” said Lawrence McAndrews, president and chief executive of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals. “I don’t think the president could be any clearer about his intentions towards children’s health care. ‘Wrong’ doesn’t begin to describe his actions.”
Jan 2nd, 2008 by admin1 | 2 Comments
SAN MATEO, Calif. (PRWeb) January 10, 2007 — Last year, Bills.com co-founders and co-CEOs Andrew Housser and Brad Stroh offered more than 200 tips to help consumers manage personal finance issues, and they are making those tips available to interested media parties via a list of topics this month.
“Education is a powerful tool when it comes to taking charge of personal finances,” Housser said. “We would like to remind consumers and media professionals alike that Bills.com is a consumer information portal designed to help individuals master their money to reach their personal goals.”
In addition to the news release tips, Bills.com offers a free consumer guide, “Debt Freedom: You Can Be Debt-Free, Starting Today.” The guide is available electronically in PDF format by visiting www.bills.com/guide.
The news releases are available online via Bills.com’s media room at http://www.bills.com/news_releases/. To request more information on any of the topics below, or to arrange an interview with Housser or Stroh, contact Aimee Bennett at (303) 843-9840 or via e-mail. Members of the media who have requests or ideas for tips on additional topics can also contact Bennett.
Consumer Finance Topics Available
Consumer debt
1. The Four Flavors of Healthy Debt
2. 4 Steps to Make the Most of Your Student Loans
3. Level the Playing Field With Collections Agencies for Fair Debt Payment
4. Back-to-School Season Means Hitting the Books - for Smart Ways to Borrow
5. Hone Your Debt Consolidation Savvy
6. Crash Course in Credit Scores
7. Understanding — and Avoiding — Credit Denials
Credit card debt
8. Expert Available to Discuss Increase of Minimum Payments on Credit Cards
9. 6 Steps to Begin Digging Out of Credit Card Debt
Credit counseling
10. IRS Credit-Counseling Investigation Advances, Strips Tax-Exempt Status From 50 Percent of Industry
11. Experts Available to Discuss IRS Crackdown on Credit Counseling Industry
12. 8 Ways to Spot a Credit-Counseling Scam
Bankruptcy
13. Expert Source Available to Discuss Bankruptcy Bill
14. Screws Tighten for U.S. Credit Card Borrowers With Higher Payments, Rising Rates, Bankruptcy Reform
Holiday spending, post-holiday debt
15. 5 Ways to Avoid Holiday Overindulgence
16. Six Ways Not to Overindulge in a Post-Thanksgiving Spending Spree
17. After Holiday Spending Craze, Consumers Can Refocus Spending
18. Holidays Timely for Personal Financial Checkup
Home finance
19. $360 Billion of Mortgage Debt at Risk of Foreclosure Among U.S. Homeowners
20. Home Loan Tips: Avoid Mortgage Troubles, Other Pangs of Rising Interest Rates
21. When Second Mortgages Make Sense
22. Is Now the Time to Refinance?
23. Reverse Mortgage Basics
24. Loan-to-Value: The Key to Getting the House You Want
25. ‘Is My House in a Bubble?’ Avoiding Foreclosure in Today’s ‘Bubbly’ Market
26. More Americans Refinance Homes to Pay Existing Debt — But Should They?
Insurance and health care
27. Choosing the Best Type of Health Plan for Your Budget
28. Insurance 101: The Basics Explained
29. How to Take a Scalpel to Medical Costs
Taxes
30. Don’t Delay in Managing IRS Tax Debt
31. Halftime for Tax Year 2005: Estimated Tax Deadline Looms on Sept. 15
General personal finance
32. Keep Spending Down as Temps Climb
33. This Year, Resolve to Clean Your Financial House
34. Experts Available to Discuss National Financial Literacy Month
35. Financial Literacy ABCs
36. The Feminine Financial Mystique: How Every Woman Must Take Control of Her Finances
37. Feast-or-Famine Budgeting: Savings 101 for Consultants, Freelancers, Artists and the Self-Employed
Based in San Mateo, Calif., Bills.com is a free one-stop online portal where consumers can educate themselves about complex personal finance issues and save money by choosing the best-value products and services. Since 2002, Bills.com and its partner company, Freedom Financial Network, have served more than 10,000 customers nationwide while managing more than $350 million in consumer debt. The company’s co-founders and CEOs, Andrew Housser and Brad Stroh, were named Northern California finalists in Ernst & Young’s 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
Dec 8th, 2007 by admin1 | 1 Comment
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Nov 15th, 2007 by SalMaggio | 2 Comments
Well, I noted a week or 2 ago after we got back online that we were adding a block for eBook downloads. Its been up for 2-3 days now. There are several eBooks available at this time.
Please take the opportunity to check some of them out. What we have listed at this time are free for download in zip file. Enjoy, these are many helpful books to read.
We will be continually adding ebooks for Free Downloads, so please return and check out what else is available often.
I hope you can take advantage of these. There are always some great ideas and most are based on the many categories we have listed here on CashBulge.com
Once you click over to the download page and register you will be able to select your eBook of choice. Each visit after that, just sign in on the download page.
Enjoy !
Oct 27th, 2007 by admin1 | 3 Comments
Whether you love him, hate him, or never even heard of the guy, Jim Cramer is one of the most influential figures on Wall Street. He is most famous for his television show Mad Money, as well as being the co-founder of TheStreet.com. He has made his living in the stock market and has also written a handful of financial books about investing and finance.
Recently, I was reading an article featuring Jim Cramer in Maxim Magazine. The article was entitled, “Are Our Financial Prospects Bright?”
Of course being the host of a hit stock market television show he strongly supported investments in stocks throughout the interview. But Cramer touched on some points about the young and their investments, and the desires he has for people to get into playing the stock market.
Cramer’s take…
“I am advocating that stocks are great- I mean Multi-year great. I see many years of tremendous opportunities to make money outside of your paycheck..I want to emphasize that people should be investing furiously from when they’re 15 to when they’re 65.”
Cramer is then asked about the easiness of getting into the stock market through the use of the internet. And about the Google generation we live in, and is all for it, stating: Youth plus Google equals “I know what people are buying in the real world, and I can go buy their stocks and make money”
With that statement in mind Cramer lastly touches on the youth and what their investment strategy should be:“Play your hunches. Buy the wildest stock. If you’re wrong you have the rest of your life to make the money back. But you could also hit the proverbial home run and be set for life. These aren’t lottery tickets. There’s not one winner. There are alot of winners. If this were the NCAA Tournament, you’d be taking a chance on the 16th seed.”
My thoughts…
I am currently in the process of getting my portfolio set up, but I have almost saved up $3000 on the side to buy some stocks, when I reach that mark. But, looking past my inexperience in the market, I too, agree with Cramer.
A while back I wrote an article entitled “Is Time More Valuable then Money” and quoted an unknown source’s line which stated: ” waste money but never time, money comes back to you but minutes are hard to find.” This definitely is the philosophy of investing for the young in my opinion. Like Cramer said as the young investor we definitely have more time to make up our losses, so it is ok to chase whims and gamble on certain stocks. I encourage people to get started as soon as they can, investing on whatever they think can make them money, before it’s to late.
Cramer also hit the nail on the head about the Google generation, with Google and the technology that is available to our generation, we are more capable of investing and doing research now more than ever.
It should not be that hard to pick a good stock if you know how to use the internet, there are even sites that rate stocks such as TheStreet.com, to give the investing newbie an head start on finding a good stock.
If your a young investor, use your knowledge of pop culture to make you money by using Google, don’t underestimate yourself about knowledge of the economy. You are the consumer and you know what people want and need, so use that knowledge to buy a good stock.
So gamble a little bit, it is the only way you will have a chance to make money, and who knows it may pay off
As far as investing furiously up to the age 65, I do not agree with that, as you get older obviously your risk taking needs to get lower and lower to secure your future, but definitely gamble away until your mid forties in my opinion 
What do you think? Should we gamble away while we are young? Is it as easy as Cramer says to find a good stock by using the internet? What is your investment strategy right now?
Sep 6th, 2007 by David Murphy-Colonna | 1 Comment
Let’s face it, our eyes are usually bigger then our wallet. When we come across a large sum of money once in awhile, whether it is from working overtime, having a good month with our blog or business, or maybe even a passing birthday, our mind starts to wander from saving to spending, and suddenly retail stores are calling our names.
As the stores call and our purchasing dreams start to seem so much closer to reality, we start to look for the “best deal”. As we look for the best deal, which conventionally means the best price, a certain phrase enters that can give us the one, two punch in the long run without us even noticing.
That phrase is : “Low Monthly Payments”
In this era where high priced items such as an HDTV are a “necessity” in our culture “Low Monthly Payments” may not seem like a bad thing at all. What it means to the average consumer is, that I can buy this item, and pay a little bit off at a time leaving more money in my pocket now and over the course of the future, right?
Wrong! “Low Monthly Payments” Is banker and retailer talk for ” we are going to make a bundle on this loan, or payment plan.” Why else do you think they would make this so convenient? So you can get a good deal? No chance. they are trying to move the product and make money off interest.
Do not get low monthly payment confused with a low price tag, they are nowhere near synonymous.
What we should do is attack our debts and look to stray away from low monthly payment plans, they are not the way to go when looking for the low purchase price, which is the conventional way to shop.
Let’s take an example from Smart Money’s article: “Changing the Monthly Mindset” which shows a credit card debt that you can make the minimum payment on each month and pay off in a long term, but pay much more then you “actually spent”
“Say you’re carrying around that average American balance of around $9,900 on a car with a 15 percent interest rate. If you pay $250 per month,slightly more than the minimum payment, it’ll take 55 months to pay off the card; by upping the payment to $1,000, you can pay it off in less than a year- and save yourself more than $3,100 in interest.”
$3,100 in interest! Sure it was convenient for you to get the item, and I do think payment plans are necessary for mortgages and other large purchases, but $3,100 on a credit card bill is definitely not something paying for no reason.
So the bottom line here is that interest is your killer. And no, I am not saying it is easy to pay $1,000 a month but stretching or sacrificing your money to put a dent in those items you are making small monthly payments on will save you big time in the long run.
So next time you come across some extra money, before going out and putting a large lump sum down on an HDTV think about about getting rid of that credit card debt, because not only will that help rid of the credit card bill but will also save you from, having another “small payment plan” that the bankers love.
Aug 21st, 2007 by David Murphy-Colonna | 2 Comments
Well school is about start back up again. It is one of the most expensive times of the year too. As if tuition wasn’t enough though, now you have to buy books, supplies, dorm room amenities, food, etc.
Although CashBulge is not able to offer scholarships to our readers to lessen the burden of college tuition, we do have some smart tips that will help you save money as you head back to campus this semester.
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Aug 16th, 2007 by David Murphy-Colonna | 3 Comments
This past weekend I shared meals with my family at two different restaurants. One restaurant was a higher end steak house, the other was at a chain restaurant, Houlihans. When the check arrived at the end of the both meals, we left a 20% tip without even blinking an eye. Like it was standard procedure. Normal right?
But then I started thinking about tipping in general and why we leave tips in the first place. Why did we leave 20% and not 15%? And why did we tip the same percentage at both restaurants, when the service varied between the two? Why is tipping so natural in today’s society?
These are a few of questions that popped into my head about tipping, and I just have some thoughts I would like to share with you.
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Aug 13th, 2007 by David Murphy-Colonna | 4 Comments
Your bored and have nothing to do on Saturday afternoon. So you decide to go to the mall to “window shop”. Sounds harmless right?
As you walk through the mall, your friends want to to stop in at the “hat” store. While in the store, you see a “hat” you like. You try it on and it looks great. You don’t need the hat because you just bought one that looks just like it but in a different color 3 weeks ago. But this one looks so good, and “you have to have it.” Next thing you know your at the cash register with your credit card out and a bag with a new hat in it.
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Aug 9th, 2007 by Leonid Shalimov | 61 Comments
What could you do with an extra $100 laying around every week? I’d probably save for a new laptop or go out more often, maybe create a stockpile of beer (or create an ice cave). I was on my disastrous commute this morning and I ran through a checklist in my mind on how I could go about saving $100 a week so that I could invest in other things that would make my life easier or just more enjoyable for that matter.
As I sat there, waiting for the D train to make its way out of the Bronx and into Manhattan I began my brainstorming. One thing after another and I realized that there was a lot you could do to save money with some simple tips. By employing some of these tips you can save a bundle every week and save it towards something you would really like or to invest it. Let’s get to the list.
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Aug 8th, 2007 by David Murphy-Colonna | 3 Comments
This is for all you Ebay users out there. And if you aren’t an Ebay user, you might want to start now.
A co-worker of mine, who is going on vacation in a week put me on to this. His dilemma was that he wanted to buy a few pairs of shorts, some polo’s, and other new clothes to go on vacation with. Fair enough.
Sure you can go to a discount store and get these items for cheap. The problem is people want to wear name brands. But he told me a good way to buy a few items from some popular retailers without breaking the bank.
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Jul 16th, 2007 by David Murphy-Colonna | 6 Comments
The main goal at CashBulge is obviously to teach people how to make money by means other then a 9 to 5 job.
Whether it be online or offline we want you to be able to make money and actually enjoy doing it through opportunities such as Blogging, starting your own consumer website, starting your own business, participating in various survey and affiliate programs etc.
Many of these activities also deal with our own personal development, becoming a stronger individual and exploiting each of our own talents, in order for us to make money. A great article to check out is Is Your ‘Right Now’ Completely As It Should Be? by Alicia Sparks. So in staying with theme of money and personal development, I would like to show you 4 simple ways a sensible person can put some money back in their pockets while pursuing their goals each month and even become healthier while doing it.
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