Despite widespread opposition, Congress passed the 2,409 page healthcare bill with few if any of the legislators actually having read the document. In fact, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, infamously quipped in a televised speech, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”

Now that the healthcare bill has been enacted as law, experts have been poring through the 2,000+ pages of legislation to determine the impact to individuals, businesses and America as a whole. It’s probably no surprise that upon reading the contents of this healthcare bill, the majority of experts believe that Congress will need to modify or at least clarify multiple sections of the bill.

Here are some of the key elements of the healthcare reform bill and the impact that they will have:

Pros

More coverage – an additional 30 million Americans who are currently uninsured will now have access to healthcare. In fact, 95% of the country is expected to have health coverage by 2014.

No limits – beginning in 2014 there will no longer be any annual or lifetime limits on your coverage. This is a significant benefit for individuals with catastrophic illnesses that require treatment that often cost well beyond the $1 million lifetime benefits limit that typical insurance policies now contain.

No pre-existing conditions – beginning in 2011, coverage cannot be denied for pre-existing conditions for children under the age of 19. By 2014, this will be extended to all Americans regardless of age.

Cheaper prescriptions for seniors – the so called “donut hole” is being closed in the Medicare Part D coverage. Seniors will begin receiving $250 rebate checks in 2010 as the first step in closing this coverage gap.

Insurance for adult dependants – beginning in 2011, children who are still living at home can now remain on their parent’s insurance policy until they are 26 years old. This applies whether these dependent children are a student or not or even if they are married or not.

Expanded Medicaid eligibility – low income individuals/families that earn up to 133% of federal poverty level (FPL) would now be eligible for Medicaid. A family of four earning less than $29,327 would be eligible. This is expected to allow 16 million Americans to join the Medicaid program by 2019.

Low income subsidies – Federal subsidies for insurance premiums will be provided to individuals earning up to 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL) unless they have access to affordable employer coverage. For a family of four, you would receive a subsidy if you earn less than $88,200.

Cons

Cost – the cost of this healthcare reform bill is conservatively estimated at nearly $1 trillion. Despite the high price tag, most experts forecast that individual health costs will continue to climb and the quality of care is likely to suffer given the higher volumes of patients that will now need to be treated.

Individual mandates – the government now requires each individual to purchase basic health insurance or pay an income tax penalty. This mandate has already sparked multiple lawsuits as states argue that it is unconstitutional for the Federal government to require individuals to purchase insurance.

Medicare cuts – to help fund this healthcare reform, Congress is reducing Medicare benefits by $500 billion. This is particularly concerning to our large, baby boomer generation that is just now entering retirement.

Higher taxes – businesses and high-wealth individuals will see tax increases in an effort to account for some of the costs of healthcare reform. Families earning more than $250,000/year will have to pay higher Medicare taxes, while medical device makers will see a new 2.9% excise tax. Of course these higher tax costs will eventually be passed on to consumers.

Higher premiums – introducing an additional 30 million people into the insurance pool will result in higher insurance premiums for the 85% of Americans that currently have insurance. Towers Watson, a leading HR consulting firm, estimates that the average person will see premium increases of 10-12% each year due to the healthcare reform bill.

Excise tax on Cadillac health plans – beginning in 2018, employers will be required to pay a 40% excise tax on insurance plans where the health coverage exceeds a specified value per year ($10,200 single coverage/$27,500 family coverage). While that sounds like a lot of money, with the expected increase in healthcare premiums it is likely that the majority of plans will be classified as a “Cadillac” health plan under these criteria. This will lead companies to reduce their insurance offerings to avoid paying hefty penalties.

Employer mandates – by 2014, employers are required to offer health plans to all employees who work more than 30 hours per week, or pay a $2,000 per employee penalty to the government.

Rationing – while possibly far-fetched, many believe that introducing an additional 30 million patients into our already over-stretched health system will by necessity lead to some form of rationing. Physicians and hospitals, facing lower levels of reimbursement, will be forced to make difficult decisions as to the level of treatment that they will offer.

HSA withdrawal tax – individuals with healthcare savings accounts (HSA) will now pay a 20% penalty for any withdrawals made for non-health expenses.

So what exactly is this tax credit? How do I get one? For complete information I recommend that you visit the government’s energy star website.

This is the government website that contains all the information regarding the energy tax credit initiative but I can summarize most of it for you here. The Federal government will reimburse you 30% of the cost of your qualifying home improvement up to a $1,500 maximum. So, for instance you decide to install a new energy efficient Furnace (which I did recently…not by choice sadly), the federal government will give you 30% of the total cost up to $1,500. In my case, I had a new 95% energy efficient furnace installed for $2,500, the tax credit I received was $750, or 30% of my cost. A nice little discount but you’d better hurry if you want to take advantage as this tax credit is set to expire on December 31, 2010. Furnaces, however, aren’t the only improvements that qualify for the credit, the complete list is much more exhaustive:

• Biomass Stoves
• Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning (HVAC)
• Insulation
• Roofs (Metal & Asphalt)
• Water Heaters (non-solar)
• Windows & Doors

But there’s more, the Tax Credit also includes a separate section for Geothermal Heat Pumps, Small Wind Turbines and Solar Energy Systems. The credit is still 30% but there is no upper limit which means if you bought and installed a $10,000 Geothermal Heat Pump, the government would credit you $3,000 towards it. This credit lasts until December 31, 2016.

At least one thing to keep in mind is that not only do you get a considerable tax credit from the government but you will also see decreased heating bills from the improved efficiency of your furnace (or similar energy efficient upgrade). A handy resource from www.energysavers.gov shows the amount you’ll likely save from your new furnace:

In my case, going from a 60% to a 95% efficient furnace made a significant reduction in my heating costs. Granted you will probably only see that savings during the winter months but even at that you can see how the improvement will make a significant and positive change in your monthly finances. In addition to the Federal Tax Credit, my local utility company, MidAmerican Energy also provides an incentive to upgrade by offering a $325 rebate. I recommend checking with your local company to see if they may offer something similar. When all was said and done, my $2500 95% energy efficient furnace cost me just a little over $1400! Now is a great time for you to give a serious look at upgrading and improving the efficiency of your home. The credit won’t last forever so take advantage of it while you can. Just consider it as a limited time clearance sale, 30% discount is considerable and worth doing while its available. The efficiency you gain from your improvements might make up the other 70% fo the cost a lot sooner than you think.

Just another recommendation on ways to save and spend your money wisely.

However, job losses continued in February as employers shed 36,000 jobs. We now officially have 14.9 million Americans that are unemployed. A phenomenal 8.4 million jobs have been lost over the last 26 months.

While the official unemployment rate may have held steady, of greater significance is the fact that the real unemployment rate increased again in February.

The official unemployment rate doesn’t include individuals who have given up on searching for jobs or who have been forced to take part-time employment while they continue to look for a full-time job. When you include these individuals in the unemployment figures, the unemployment rate for February was 16.8%. This was an increase from January’s 16.5%, but still below the 17.4% level reached last October.

While the 36,000 jobs lost in February was better than 75,000 than many economists expected, it was still worse than the 26,000 job losses reported last month.

So while there may be some glimmers of hope in the labor figures today, the celebration should be muted. It will take several years to replace the 8.4 million jobs lost over the last two years, even if the economy begins to add jobs once again at a healthy rate.

Toyota sales declined nearly 9% as the company continues to suffer fall-out from their gas-pedal fiasco. However, some analysts were surprised that the impact for Toyota wasn’t significantly worse.

So with Toyota’s sales down, which models are car buyers now choosing in its place?

The Honda Accord which has been Toyota Camry’s primary competitor over the years, did see some marginal improvement. 20,024 Honda Accord’s were sold in February compared to 19,022 in January.

However, the big winner seems to be the Ford Fusion. The Ford Fusion sold 16,459 vehicles in February which was a phenomenal increase over January’s 12,179 vehicles.

The Fusion jumped to the 7th spot in this month’s vehicle rankings (up from Number 10 in last month’s rankings). The Fusion leaped over the Chevrolet Cobalt, Nissan Altima and Chevrolet Malibu.

Ford has certainly been aggressively targeting Toyota buyers. Both Ford Fusion and Toyota Camry are offering buyers a $1,000 rebate this month. However, with negative headlines continuing for Toyota, we would expect the Ford Fusion to take additional market share from the Toyota Camry this month. In fact, it is very real possibility that the Ford Fusion will outsell the Toyota Camry for the first time ever this month.

The best method for raising financially responsible children is for the parents to be financially responsible themselves. You cannot teach your children what they should do if you yourself don’t do it. You first have to get your own financial house in order. Children don’t do as you say – they do as you do. They study your every move, and unfortunately, plenty of parents pass on some very damaging financial practices.

Children who watch their parents ring up huge credit card bills buying luxury items and taking vacations they can’t afford tend to dig the same financial holes themselves as adults. A child who sees bills pile up unpaid is getting a damaging lesson in managing money – one they may struggle all their lives to overcome.

Another way you can ruin your child’s financial future is by spoiling them. Many people seem to have convinced themselves that showering their kids with everything they want is good parenting. They lose the ability to say no to anything their child asks for. Then when that child gets out in the real world on a low starting salary, they have no sense at all of financial restraint. They still expect to be able to have everything right now. Of course, credit card companies are happy to assist them in getting what they want right away. It doesn’t take long for a child who has been spoiled their whole life to find themselves buried in $5,000-$10,000 of credit card debt.

Along those same lines, you shouldn’t buy your children something every time you take them with you to the store. It’s not a matter of being able to afford to buy them something, but rather an opportunity to teach financial restraint. Buying toys and gifts for your children should be reserved for special occasions (e.g. Birthday, Christmas, etc.). If you simply buy everything your children wants, you are not only taking away the “specialness” of gifts, you are setting up your kid to be a financial wreck. The children who get everything they want when they’re young end up struggling with debt the rest of their lives — simply because they were never taught moderation and living within one’s means.

Of course, parents can also teach their children bad financial habits by spoiling themselves as well. Very few families seem to know how to live within their means. They seem oblivious to the risks of spending more than they earn. In fact, they seem more concerned about the perceived shame that might come if they tried living within their means. Keeping up with the Joneses has never before been so pervasive in our culture. It’s impossible for you to teach your children how to handle peer pressure if you can’t resist it yourself. Spending money just to impress someone sends the wrong message to your children.

Of course learning how to manage money is something children have to learn by experience. Giving children a lecture about how to handle money is not enough. Children need to learn and experience it.

One great way to teach your children about earning and managing money is by giving them a regular allowance. This gives children first-hand experience in learning how to manage money and appreciate the value of their hard-earned dollars.

In addition, having an allowance will help children set financial goals and learn how to live on a fixed-income/budget. It will require them to make choices about what they will spend their money on. They will have to learn to balance what they have with what they want. They also learn that everything has a cost associated with it. Just because it’s advertised on television doesn’t mean that you can afford it.

Of course a child shouldn’t be paid for every little thing they do around the house. Each child should have regular household chores that they are required to do because they are a contributing part of the family. Then there should also be additional tasks and responsibilities for which they are paid an allowance. These tasks provide children with an introduction to the notions of work and receiving payment for the level and quality of the work they do. An important part of giving an allowance is that your children learn that if they don’t do the work and just as importantly, if they don’t do quality work – they don’t get paid.

Allowances can also be useful tools for teaching your children about other values. For example, teaching them that the first 10% of what they receive belongs to the Lord. Requiring them to deposit a certain amount each month in a savings account teaches them about frugality and long-term planning. Helping them to decide whether to wait to buy something later rather than right away shows them about the value of patience and delayed gratification. An essential part of becoming a responsible person is learning to delay gratification. Yet popular culture encourages – and profits from – people seeking immediate gratification. Teaching children to delay gratification, through the use of allowances, will make them more resistant to the messages of “Gotta have it now!” with which popular culture bombards them, and will help them grow up to be financially responsible adults.

How much you decide to give as an allowance will depend upon your individual financial situation and the age of the child. It shouldn’t be such a large amount that they are never required to make any tough financial decisions and it shouldn’t be so little that it doesn’t allow them to practice financial responsibility. As the child gets older, the amount you give should increase.

It’s important that children learn that money does not “grow on trees”. Just because you have checks in your checkbook or credit cards in your wallet does not mean you have money to spend. An essential part of fiscal responsibility is learning to live within one’s budget. Your children have to learn how to respect money and use it properly. Money is not just a means of buying popularity or happiness. The most important lesson you can teach your children about money has nothing to do with how much you can get, but rather how to use what you do have.

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

Creditors have better memories than debtors.

There never was a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose to the grindstone.

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

It is the eye of other people that ruin us. If I were blind I would want, neither fine clothes, fine houses or fine furniture.

If you would like to know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.

Time is money.

Who is rich? He that rejoices in his portion.

In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities.

He does not possess wealth; it possesses him.

A small leak can sink a great ship.

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Rather go to bed with out dinner than to rise in debt.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in.

It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever while you live, expense is constant and certain: and it is easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

God helps those who help themselves.

The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed.

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.

There are three faithful friends – an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.

He that rises late must trot all day.

It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

In times past you would have had no choice, but to simply let the offering plate pass you by without contributing. Hopefully, you would then remember to bring some cash or your checkbook to the next service.

However, we now live in a technologically-advanced civilization. Even paying tithes and giving offerings is becoming more sophisticated. Many churches will now allow you to automatically deposit your tithes or electronically transfer contributions directly into their bank account.

However, your options have now expanded even further. Lynne Gabriel recently created an iPhone app called MyTithe that allows you to pay your tithes or contribute offerings by using your cell phone.

Just think of the convenience. Instead of just letting the offering plate pass you by when you don’t have any cash in your wallet, you can now just whip out your cell phone and make a donation. As technology continues to develop, we may not even need offering plates in a few more years. We can all just take out our cell phones and give cheerfully unto the Lord – electronically.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7.

Did you know the average U.S. family spends close to $1,500 a year on home utility bills? So what can you do to help reduce those costs? eChristianFinance.com has put together these 10 ways to reduce your home energy bills:  

1. Set your thermostat comfortably low in the winter and comfortably high in the summer. Install a programmable thermostat that is compatible with your heating system. Utility companies recommend 68 degrees in the winter and 78 degrees in the summer.

2. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.

3. Let your dishes air dry instead of using your dishwasher’s drying cycle.

4. Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.

5. Plug home electronics, such as TVs and DVD players, into power strips (make sure and turn the power strips off when the equipment is not in use as TVs and DVDs in standby still use several watts of power).

6. Lower the thermostat on your hot water heater to 120 degrees.

7. Take short showers instead of baths.

8. Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.

9. Clean or replace filters on furnaces once a month or as needed.

10. Look for the energy star label on home appliances and products. Energy star products meet stict efficiency guidelines set forth by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

For more information about home energy audits, including free tools and calcuators, visit www.energysavers.gov or www.natresnet.org/resources/consumer/default.htm.

Just a few years ago would have spent money without even thinking or maybe I should say they would buy things on credit without thinking. Now those same individuals are rediscovering how to save money and reduce their monthly expenses. Unfortunately, while many of your monthly budget items are fixed expenses, one of the biggest expenses that you can control is your grocery budget.

Students of Christian finance will know that the Bible has always taught good stewardship. Even Jesus in one of his most famous parables said:

Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Matthew 25:21.

We at eChristianFinance.com believe that the financial principles of the Bible are timeless and have put together the following 10 tips for consumers to save money on their monthly grocery bills.

1. Don’t shop at just one store. You actually save money by shopping the best prices at multiple stores.

2. Always shop with a list. It’s a known fact that consumers spend as much as 30% less.

3. Bring a calculator with you when you shop for multiple reasons. You can calculate the price difference between large quantity items versus smaller sizes. You don’t always save money buying in bulk.   You will also get to the cashier and know exactly how much you are spending.

4. Shop store brands over name brand items. You can save as much as 60% or more.

5. Clip coupons. Check your local newspaper or use sites such as www.smartsource.com, www.coupons.com and www.retailmenot.com .  Use both the store coupon and the manufactures’ coupons whenever possible for maximum savings.

6. Check your local grocery store ads for sales and plan your meals accordingly.

7. Shop stores lost leaders. Stores will routinely drastically discount certain items in order to draw more consumers.

8. If something is a great buy stock up. 

9. In order to save money your kitchen pantry must be organized you will loose money by overstocking.

10. Be sure to plan your meals ahead. By planning ahead you will be less likely to eat out.

A lot of users will go to priceline.com and do searches for plane fares/hotel bookings and when the web browser spits back some prices and options they’re content with that. Well, yes, you can find a decent deal that way but if you want the really good deals you need to be willing to dig a little deeper. The absolute best feature of priceline.com is the “Name Your Own Price” option. This is where you can put in your own bid on what you think is a good price for your hotel, flight, rental car etc. This is very appealing to the savvy negotiator. This isn’t like haggling with a greasy salesman over a badly used car, this is price negotiation at its finest. You sip your coffee and calmly type in a price; priceline.com does some magic and if you’re lucky (and shrewd), you’ll get yourself a steep discount on the perfect vacation.

Here’s how it works: airlines don’t like flights with empty seats and even if they only get a small amount of the normal fare its still better than flying with no one in that chair. It works the same way with hotels. So priceline.com will submit your bid to most of the major airlines/hotels and if someone out there is needing your money badly enough they’ll match you up. A perfect union. Move over matchmaking.com and say hello to Priceline! Advantages? Absolutely! Disadvantages? Yeah, there’s some. Let’s take a closer look.

I’ve used Priceline for several years now and over time I’ve saved thousands of dollars combined on my travels. Last year my wife and I took a two week trip to Europe. I used Priceline for all my hotels, the end result? I was staying at 4 and 5 star hotels most of the time for under $100 a night. While we were in Europe we met some tourists that were spending more than that to stay at dubiously titled hostels. The main advantages of using the Name Your Own Price option on Priceline.com is the money that you will save. I’ve found that most times you are able to save at least 40-50% on hotels over Priceline’s already reasonable rates and usually 70-80% off of the hotel’s normal asking rate. (In Venice, Italy we stayed at a 5 star Hilton for $115 a night while the normal room rate was $495).

Using Priceline.com’s bidding feature is very simple. You just select “hotels”, type in the city that you want to stay in and enter the dates that you would like to stay there. Once you select “Search Hotels” and Priceline will return several hotels back to you. This listing of available hotels will have room rates and star ratings that you can purchase directly if you wish to stay at a particular hotel. If you’re willing to be a little more adventurous however, you can step up to the bidding process. On the top right hand side will be a little box that says, “Name Your Own Price.” This is where the fun begins. Clicking that box will take you to a new screen with a few necessary options. You’ll get to select the general area that you’d like to be located in; this way you can ensure you’re in the right area of town and not miles away from the places you’d like to visit. Once you select the area, you can then select the star rating of the hotel that you would like to stay in. I almost always select 4 star or greater since these hotels are the ones that will offer the greatest discounts off their normal rates. Finally, you have to enter your bid. Priceline will indicated the median retail price for hotel in the areas and star rating that you’ve selected. General rule of thumb that I’ve used is that you can typically get your stay at least 50% off of that median price. You can bid lower, of course, than that and sometimes still get a match but it just depends on how willing the hotels are to negotiate. The longer your stay though the more you’re going to save by getting a lower room rate. The main advantage of course is that you’re saving a lot of money and you’ll probably end up staying at a much nicer hotel than you would otherwise stay at. The disadvantages are that you don’t get to choose precisely which hotel you are staying at, you can’t just say “I want to stay at a Hilton on 3rd and main.” Generally speaking though, the cost savings are greater than any hotel loyalty rewards points and the locations are close enough that they represent no problems. When I recently stayed in St. Louis, MO I wound up at a Hyatt Regency directly across from the Arch which was where I wanted to be in anyway.

The airlines work in a very similar way although there are some significant differences that can make the “Name Your Own Price” less attractive than it is for the hotels. All you need to do is simply enter where you are flying from and where you want to go and then follow the same procedure for naming your own price. The drawback is that you can’t specify the times that you’d like to fly out at or the time you’d like to fly back, you can only choose days. This means if you have a tight schedule you need to keep, you might not get what you want. You could fly out anytime on the day you select (morning, midday or evening). Priceline does guarantee some things however. They guarantee you will get to spend at least 24 hours at your destination (i.e. they won’t fly you in at midnight on Friday night and ship you out at 11am on Saturday morning), but beyond that its somewhat up to the mercy of the airline schedules and availability. Again, just like the hotels you won’t get to select a specific airline that you’d like to fly either. Also, this isn’t available if you need to fly through multiple cities. Beyond that though, if you’ve got some freedom in your schedule then the name your own price for airlines is a wonderful idea that can save you a nice wad of cash.

The one area I wish Priceline would expand is to include the name your own price feature is their Vacation Packages. You can use this to put together an all inclusive vacation package to a certain city (Airline, Hotel and car). Unfortunately, they don’t have a name your own price option for these packages. However this might be something that they introduce in the future. So there, now you’ve learned a great way to save at least 50% (usually) on all your hotels and flights, maybe you can afford that little getaway after all. Time to check out Florida!