Chief Prognosticator

Do you have Kroger grocery stores in your neck of the country? Well down here in the South we do and up until this past year, Kroger had a great deal on gasoline. If you bought at their fuel centers and swiped your (free) Kroger Plus Card, you would save 3 cents a gallon off your purchase. When gas was $2 a gallon, that would be 1.5% off. Nice. But gas has since gone to $4 and growing, so 3 cents is worth that much less. Who cares if the price is $4.23 or $4.26, especially if the price next week will be $4.35!

Sorry Kroger, I imagine your sales are dropping. A better situation would be like my Chase Perfect Card which offers 3% (not 3 cents) cash back on gas purchases. That fixed rate means your savings will move in unison with fuel prices. Save $0.06 a gallon when gas is $2 and save $0.12 a gallon when its $4! The only problem now is that Chase has capped your maximum monthly cash back. The solution, get a second credit card from another company offering cash back on gas and use both cards each month.

There are two main forms of entrepreneurship — 1) start your business from the ground up or 2) buy an existing business and make it grow. I’ve found a new search engine which makes finding businesses for sale easy! BizAg.com is a specialized search engine for business sale listings across the country. Aggregated from multiple data sources (classified ads, online listings, etc), BizAg.com is as simple as Google but gives you so much more in terms of information you need. Just type in a business type (or any sort of keyword) and search. The results will show a listings of businesses for sale related to that term. Limit your search results geographically or go nationwide. Here’s a sample result:

See the data at the top — that’s a quick excerpt of business statistic for the search result. Asking Price, Cash Flow, Revenue — all this data is exactly what an entrepreneur needs to make the right decisions. Want to buy a bar in Maui or a music store in Philly? Well this is the place to start! I think this type of specific search engine / data aggregator is just what the web needs — there’s a good chance in my opinion that someone like Google or Yahoo will be making an offer for it!

Its getting crazy with regards to airlines charging for extras which were once free. You’ve must of heard of the charges for 2nd checked bags by now, but its getting worse. I read recently that some airlines are going to start charging for soft drinks, water and coffee on board. Combine that with restrictions on bring your own beverage through security, and you’re pretty much forced to pay (or go thirsty). $2 for a can of coke — not funny at all. Why can’t airlines just drop the games and be straight with their pricing once and for all. They can’t have their cake and eat it too… meaning they need to choose one:

1) Variable rates for seats but without surcharges and added fees
or
2) Fixed rates across the board, all inclusive.

How is the first largest country in the world (Russia) regaining its superpower status? Oil! Gas! Timber! Steel! Coal! Anti-capitalism! You name it. Well what’s the second largest country in the world? Canada. Can Canada be poised for a new era of wealth?

Bet on it! With such vast wilderness spanning a massive landmass, Canada should benefit greatly from higher energy and raw material costs. Sure getting some of those resources, like oil shales, is tough but as energy prices rise, there could be a whole new wave of Canadian Billionaires!

I love web design! Although my focus is primarily on blog themes and design, I can appreciate the beauty of a well planned out and designed website. I must have spent 5 or 6 hours searching through free Wordpress blog themes in order to find this one here. I just liked the color scheme and simplicity of the layout. A little customization in cpanel and XML later and my website directory and links page works nicely in the overall theme!

My love for web design is always keeping my eyes out for great sites offering free templates. I’ve found a new one at Dreamtemplate.com which deserves special attention. Dreamtemplate.com offers over 300 free website templates for your downloading. There’s nothing to buy — just browse the site and pick a great theme. You can integrate the site as is or customize it easily using HTML and XML. Like the site? Well if you are really into it, you can get access to literally thousands of great website themes for only $59.95. You can use any of these themes for your site — even commercial sites!

To view the free templates, click on the category Free Website Templates and scroll through the over 300 choices. These ones will cost you absolutely nothing to download and use. The only thing is that you promise not to resell the templates. The rest is fair use! If you like what you see and want to see more, join for a one-time fee of $59.95 and get access to the full collection of website templates including great flash website templates.

What makes Dreamtemplate.com’s website templates different than the rest? Quality! No seriously, the templates you will find here are not quickies. Instead each template go through a complete design process at Dreamtemplate.com’s design studio. Accordingly each template is well thought out, designed and tested — at an average of 7-15 hours of production time each! Not only does your membership give you access to thousands of amazing designs but access to all the future templates. New templates appear every week — and they keep getting better! Think of Dreamtemplate.com as your professional design partner in creating and maintaining an awesome website.

For you affiliate sales entrepreneurs out there, check out Dreamtemplate.com’s amazing affiliate program. You earn an incredible 30% commission on all sales! That could easily add up to $1000 a month or more. So what are you waiting for? Whether you are building a new site, revamping an existing one, or are looking for a new online money maker, check out Dreamtemplate.com.

Looks like even China’s strict government has a soft spot. In light of the recent earthquake disaster, the Chinese Government has announced that families who lost “their only child” in the quake could have another one. Strange stuff that One-Child Policy…. I was reading an article in Sky Magazine about a famous Chinese Dinosaur hunter… I read he had two young children. What’s up with that?

Sure the dealership’s access to manufacturer credit for a new car Auto Loan is one way, but its not always the best. Accordingly you need to know your options and even have external financing ready when you walk into the dealer. Credit Unions have been a good source for this second loan route but I just found another way — Apex Auto Loan. They have access to a Nationwide network of banks and credit providers. For new or used cars, they can line you up financing before you walk into the dealer.Even if you are not ready to buy this weekend, visit their website and use the free Auto Loan Calculator. It is a great tool to help you figure out how much can you can afford. Just don’t forget to factor in the price of gas!

I’d say just plain complicated at this moment. Sure the U.S. Congress recently passed a law against insurance companies being able to use genetic information to determine coverage. Sounds fair right? Well it does and it doesn’t. Isn’t insurance all about risk? And isn’t risk based on predisposition? You know what would solve this? Socialized Medicine! Yeah, I know its a touchy subject here in the U.S., but if we don’t want to “discriminate” against anyone in who gets health coverage for a reasonable fee, then social medicine (single payer) is the only way to go… Why didn’t Congress pass that bill? I guess its a whole lot easier to pass a bill against “discrimination” than it is against capitalism…