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U.S. Postal Service Ending Saturday Delivery

This article was written by in Consumer. 15 comments.


The U.S. Postal Service announced today that Saturday delivery of first-class items will end in August.

When I asked a few years ago whether we should eliminate the Postal Service entirely, the question generated a good discussion, with many readers agreeing that the best solution to the perennial problem of the service not generating enough revenue to operate would be to cut back service. Calling for the elimination of Saturday delivery was a frequent suggestion, and others further suggested even fewer delivery days.

The U.S.P.S. has listened to suggestions like these and has come up with a plan to save money by cutting service without disrupting certain services that might be considered essential, even on the weekends.

The elimination of Saturday delivery pertains only to letters to street addresses sent via First Class mail. Post Offices will remain open on Saturday, and First Class mail sent to P.O. boxes will be delivered and available for pick-up on Saturday. Shipment and delivery of packages will still be available on Saturday, even deliveries to street addresses.

The above point is important for anyone who relies on the Postal Service to deliver medications, one of the biggest concerns with the elimination of Saturday delivery.

Maintaining the package delivery service six days each week allows the U.S.P.S. to continue working with other delivery companies like UPS and FedEx without any cutbacks. The Postal Service works with these companies in several ways. The companies occasionally share aircraft, and some items sent via an outside company are delivered by the Postal Service.

A recent experience with such a service was not very positive. I ordered a custom-printed cell phone case as a gift well in advance of the holidays from Vistaprint, choosing the least expensive shipping option. This option was called “UPS Mail Innovations.” The service seemed to work with UPS handling most of the transportation of the package except for the final delivery, where the Postal Service takes delivery of the package and handles that last mile from the Post Office to the final destination.

The package didn’t arrive by Christmas though the scheduled delivery date was a week before the holiday. In fact, it didn’t arrive at all. The company offered to send the same product free of charge, and the second shipment never arrived either. When I called the Post Office to check on the two items, the postmaster said she’d need to check with the carrier and get back to me. She never got back to me.

Vistaprint sent a third package gratis, this time with the standard, more expensive, UPS delivery option, and the package arrived without a problem on the scheduled and promised delivery date. The two earlier packages, sent via UPS Mail Innovations and tracked until their hand-off with the Post Office, were never to be found.

For standard First Class mail, I’ve never lost a letter with the Postal Service — as far as I know.

Given that the bulk of the mail I receive consists of junk mail from credit card companies, coupons I wouldn’t use, local newsletters, and other advertisements, I won’t miss Saturday delivery. I would be comfortable with mail being delivered fewer than five days a week. Outside of junk, I receive bills, banking statements, and holiday cards. That’s about it. I can — and should — turn off my remaining paper bills and statements in favor of electronic communications.

I only check the paper statements for changes in terms, like a new banking fee, while I reconcile my accounts online to ensure I haven’t been charged for something I didn’t purchase.

Service cuts at the U.S. Postal Service won’t end with Saturday delivery of First Class mail. While cutting back Saturday delivery of letters might save some money in terms of expenses today, it’s only a temporary fix. The Postal Service’s expenses will continue to grow, and increasing the cost of postage alone won’t offset those costs. It might take several years, but I expect the service to drop even more days of First Class delivery.

What will U.S.P.S. look like 20 years from now? Will it just be a service for delivering packages? Will we receive First Class mail just once a week? Will all First Class mail be digitally scanned and sent instantaneously? We don’t want to see the Postal Service disappear, but will there be a need for it at all within two more decades?

Photo: Flickr

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The Wrong Reason To Become An Entrepreneur

This article was written by in Career and Work, Featured. 11 comments.

I don’t have the statistics pertaining to this, but I have a strong impression that many people dream about starting their own business, and many who do have this particular daydream are inspired to consider what this life would be like because they don’t like their boss. Or maybe they don’t like working for someone else in general.

All the late-night infomercials and spammy or scammy websites promising riches with tantalizing come-ons like “Work from home!” and “Be your own boss!” certainly point to the idea that there’s an innate desire to storm out of the boss’s office, slamming the door on the way out, with a huge grin on one’s face as one sticks it to The Man. Commercials like this appear on late night for an obvious reason: insomniacs and others staying up late at night are tired and more susceptible to misguided, illogical, or poorly reasoned suggestions.

I can’t criticize either the entrepreneurial spirit nor the process of meeting with one’s boss and handing her a craftily worded letter of resignation. I left my corporate job to work for myself.

Although I’ve known for a long time that I don’t mindlessly bend to authoritative figures, particularly those whose awarding of authority is based on something I consider unworthy, this wasn’t my particular driver for forming a business. I came upon my business by accident, spending almost all of my waking free time in a manner most would consider a waste of that time. It wasn’t a business at first; I wasn’t trying to make money. It just worked out that way, and I was able to fit that into my worldview wherein I don’t particularly care for working for others.

This in itself is the wrong reason to become an entrepreneur. But what does it mean when someone says he doesn’t like working for other people? It has to be a combination of the following:

  • The lack of autonomy.
  • Having responsibility without authority.
  • Being part of a system that is not a meritocracy.
  • Superiors who don’t have either the knowledge their position should entail or the people skills required in management.
  • The lack of advancement opportunities.
  • The lack of compensation growth opportunities other than incremental.
  • A certain level of anti-social tendencies.
  • The disdain for adhering to someone else’s schedule.

Perhaps this clip from the Coen brothers’ film The Hudsucker Proxy, wherein a green hire at the bottom of the ladder of a nebulous corporation receives his orientation in the mail room, epitomizes why working for a corporation can be anathema to so many people who have a mind tuned towards independent thinking and humane treatment of other people. Be sure to watch the entire excerpt.

There’s bad news for those whose sole reason for starting a business comes from the attitudes towards working described above. None of these attitudes would be beneficial to anyone, whether working for another individual or working for oneself, and if you disdain these types of situations in a corporate situation, working for yourself isn’t going to be that much better from a psychological standpoint — but maybe you’ll have more of the benefits for yourself, outweighing the potential annoyances.

An entrepreneur has more bosses than any other type of worker.

You can call yourself President, Chief Executive Officer, Owner, or Grand Poobah. Titles like these give the impression you answer to nobody else. The buck stops here, with you. They may well be accurate titles, too — well, except for the meaningless “Grand Poobah.” Those titles work best when you have other people working for you; without someone to order around, there’s really no point in having any title anyway. They imply you’re the boss, not to be trifled with, and they tell the world that you make the rules.

You don’t. If you want to own your own business, whether you hire people to help you or not, you have many bosses you’ll need to answer to. Your entire job will be based around making someone happy, or else your business won’t last long, and your days as an entrepreneur will be numbered.

Your new bosses could include your customers, your clients, your Board of Directors, market conditions, your shareholders, your private investors, and government regulators. They might not be telling you what time you need to open your email in the morning, but you’ll need to listen to their feedback and understand their needs in order to have a successful business. In many cases, the combinations of new bosses will be more demanding that have higher expectations than your former corporate boss in the corner office or the larger cubicle ever was.

If your new venture creates products and services — and what business doesn’t, in some form — you need to listen to your customers. In fact, doing so might alter the mission.

Personal finance start-up Budgetable started as a way to help customers create and stick to spending plans, but after determining that their customers were more interested in finding coupons and saving money through spending rather than actually saving — or determining that this is the more profitable route — they changes their focus towards finding the latest deals. I don’t know if this is a great example of listening to one’s customers, as it seems more like the customers they initially had weren’t profitable and turned towards those who are, but if you believe the press releases, they needed to listen to their customers.

Customers provide feedback in many ways — sometimes it’s as simple as refusing to buy the product, but a good entrepreneur can perform the research and adjust to the needs of their customers. This is best done by firmly believing that the customer, while perhaps not always right, is always the boss. Sometimes you have to convince the boss he’s wrong, and that can be a daunting task, but if you don’t listen to your customers as if they were making the rules, you won’t have your business for long.

If you create your business as a consulting firm or as an organization that provides some kind of service to other businesses, you have clients. The clients are your customers, and the same rules apply. It’s just a question of terminology.

Depending on how your business is organized, as an entrepreneur, consider yourself employed by your Board of Directors, investors, or shareholders. If you do not meet the expectations in your role as C.E.O., they will kick you out and replace you with someone who does listen to their demands. They may not care whether you work regular hours, but if you don’t like working regular hours and your stakeholders are doing their jobs, their expectations of you will be high enough that you’ll need to manage your time well.

Every successful entrepreneur I’ve known has put more time in than one might consider required. Those who put in extra effort and time in a corporate job answering to someone else are more likely to have the work ethic required to excel as a business owner. “Nine to five” as a concept for getting work done doesn’t exist when you own your own business. It may just be a question of motivation. You may hate being asked to work overtime when you don’t see the benefits (other than overtime pay), but working for yourself, you may be more willing to put in extra time. But in my experience, the best attitudes for successful business ownership carry over into other aspects of life, like working for other people.

It takes a special passion to be successful starting a business. You have to be ready to make a commitment and ready to prioritize the needs of that business. The needs of the business relate directly to the needs of the new bosses, the customers, clients, and investors, as mentioned herein. The same traits that prevent a person from overachieving while working for some other company might cause problems when that same person decides to become an entrepreneur. Many of the same skills that allow a worker to impress others in a corporate setting will translate well to owning a business.

It’s a myth that people who can’t function well in corporate settings due to the lack of desire to work for others have what it takes to be successful entrepreneurs. There are exceptions, of course; I know a good number of bloggers, for example, who were able to quit their day jobs, but in the grand scheme, that is very rare. Starting your own business won’t necessarily help you excel if you are unsuccessful in a corporate setting.

Photo: Flickr

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The Best Credit Cards, May 2013

This article was written by in Credit. 45 comments.


As the new year begins, it’s a good opportunity to review the best credit card offers available and see which — if any — make sense for you. The best credit cards of 2013 offer a combination of sign-up bonuses, reward programs, low-APR promotional periods, and other benefits that can be used to your advantage if you pay attention.

When used properly, credit cards can be an effective tool for managing your finances, earning rewards on everyday spending, building a solid credit history, and maintaining your cash flow, but these tools can be also used incorrectly, damaging your finances in the process.

Consider the following offers if you plan to open a new credit card or if you’re looking to make the most out of your everyday spending. But if you are a “Type A” credit card user — if you use credit cards to spend more than you can afford and have difficulty making payments — consider improving your finances and getting out of debt before applying for a new credit card.

The best card for balance transfers

Slate® from Chase. Right now, the best credit card offer for balance transfers is Slate from Chase. Open a card with an offer like this when you have a balance on a card with a high interest rate that you’d like to pay off without owing additional interest. For example, if you have a $15,000 balance on a card with an ongoing APR of 15%, you could save $2,250 by moving that balance to Slate from Chase and paying the remainder of the $15,000 before the introductory period ends.

The introductory period is fifteen months, during which time you’ll be able to pay your transferred balances off without any interest. While Slate from Chase and other cards generally charge a balance transfer fee, in the 60 days after being approved for Slate from Chase, as an introductory offer you’ll be able to transfer your balance without a fee. After those 60 days have passed, the balance transfer fee is 3% of the amount of each transfer, with a $5 minimum.

You can transfer up to $15,000, but if Chase determines your credit limit should be lower, you will be limited to the lower amount.

The 0% introductory APR also applies to purchases, making this card a good option for buying a larger item. If you’ve saved up to purchase some furniture, for example, you can use the introductory purchase APR of 0% to use the credit card issuer’s money to improve your cash flow. This leverage technique is risky. If you end up using the credit card for an emergency, you can make it more difficult to repay your balance before the introductory period is complete. On the other hand, it leaves you with more cash in your bank account.

After the introductory period of fifteen months is complete, Chase will assign a variable APR to your purchases and balance transfers, currently ranging from 11.99% to 21.99%. You will need good to excellent credit to qualify for this Slate from Chase offer.

If you have good to excellent credit, Slate from Chase offers a 0% introductory APR on both purchases and balance transfers for fifteen months, without charging the dreaded balance transfer fee on transfers made within 60 days of account opening. All other transfers will be charged 3% of the amount of each transfer, with a $5 minimum. After the introductory period, purchase and balance transfer APR’s will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate and the APR is currently between 11.99% to 21.99% variable, depending on your credit history. Utilize the free Blueprint® features to avoid interest and to help pay down the balances faster. In addition Slate from Chase comes with Patented Fraud Protection and zero liability on unauthorized purchases.

The best credit card cash back rewards

Credit card issuers have become much savvier about operating their cash back rewards programs. Most issuers now require cardholders to remember to enroll several times throughout the year in order to receive the cash back they advertise. That’s why I recommend a card that doesn’t require you to jump through hoops to accumulate the cash back promised in the ads.

American Express Blue Cash EverydayBlue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express. Most cash back credit cards offer 1% cash back on all purchases as a baseline, with certain categories of expenses earning additional cash back. With some cards, the categories change throughout the year. To keep life simple, the Blue Cash Everyday Card from American Express remains consistent each month.

Cardholders can receive 3% cash back on purchases at US supermarkets on the first $6,000 of purchases per calendar year, 2% cash back on gasoline purchases made at US gas stations, 2% cash back at select US department stores, and 1% cash back on other purchases. Terms and limitations apply. You don’t need to sign up for the program in addition to applying for the card. And cash back is received in the form of Reward Dollars that can be redeemed as a statement credit. You can redeem the “Reward Dollars” you earn at any time after they are credited to your account, after you have at least $25 in your reward bank.

In addition to the rewards program, for a limited time, new cardholders may qualify for a welcome bonus. After spending at least $1,000 on the card over the course of the first three months, you can receive 100 Reward Dollars. Also for a limited time, American Express is offering an introductory 0% APR on purchases for twelve months. After that, your APR will be a variable rate, currently 12.99%-21.99%. If you like the idea of a simple rewards program, consider the Blue Cash Everyday® Card from American Express. Terms and Restrictions Apply.

The best credit card for airline miles

Most often, the best way to make the most out of your credit card spending for your travel needs is to use the credit card that is tied directly to the airline you travel most frequently. For better or worse, United Airlines flies the routes I generally travel for the best prices, so I use a credit card where I earn rewards in the form of United MileagePlus points. There are cards that are more flexible for travelers who use multiple airlines or don’t have one such frequently-traveled route.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is arguable the best option for earning flexible travel rewards. You will earn one point for every dollar spent on purchases with the card. Your travel expenses as well as your restaurant dining expenses earn double. Each year, Chase will credit a 7% Annual Points Dividend on every point you earned during the prior 12 months, even if you’ve already redeemed the points.

Chase is encouraging its cardholders to book travel through their own online agency. When you do, your points are worth 20% more. For example, a $500 flight normally requires 50,000 points; booking through Chase reduces that requirement to 40,000 points. If you’d rather book directly with your airline, you can transfer your points to leading frequent travel programs on a one-to-one basis.

New cardholders can receive 40,000 bonus points (enough for $500 in travel rewards as mentioned above, or transferable to frequent flyer programs) by spending $3,000 by the end of the first three months after being approved for the card. Another benefit for travelers is the 0% foreign transaction fee.

There is a downside to owning this card. Chase charges a $95 annual fee, however the first year there is an introductory annual fee of $0, after that the annual fee is $95. If you make heavy use of travel rewards, it might be worth the $95. If the benefits outweigh the cost, apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

For a less expensive travel rewards card American Express charges an annual fee of $75 for the Blue Sky Preferred® from American Express. Currently there is a 15,000 bonus point sign-up bonus (after spending $1,000 in the first three months of cardmembership). 15,000 points are worth a $200 statement credit towards travel purchases, so the ratio of rewards to points is more favorable.

The best credit card sign-up bonus

Ink Cash® Business Card. Although it’s a card for business owners, I like the bonus Chase is offering. For new cardholders that spend $3,000 in the first three months of owning the card, the Ink Cash Business Card provides a $200 cash back bonus.

The card also offers a generous rewards program. In addition to the standard 1% cash back on purchases, cardholders can earn 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent each year with office supply stores, mobile phone carriers, and internet and cable television services. Equipment purchases aren’t included in that category, unfortunately. Cardholders can also earn 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent annually at gas stations and restaurants. Take note that introductory offers and APRs change often, so be sure to review the application and the terms and conditions carefully when you apply for the Ink Cash Business Card. Also, although it’s a business card, any qualified individual can apply.

I’ve mentioned some good sign-up bonuses earlier in this article, but also worth noting is the Citi Dividend Platinum Select Visa Card – $100 Cash Back. With this card from Citibank, new members earn a $100 cash back bonus after spending only $500 in the first three months of account opening. This card has a low threshold, making the bonus easier to attain for more consumers. The ongoing cash back rewards include 1% cash back on every purchase as well as categories earning 5% cash back from Citi that rotate (and require enrollment) throughout the year.

Other cards worth noting

Citi® Diamond Preferred® CardCiti® Diamond Preferred® Card. While the Citi Diamond Preferred Card does not include a rewards program, there is a 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for a full 18 months. There is a balance transfer fee of either $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer. The regular purchase APR is 11.99% – 21.99% variable, depending on credit history, and this card includes no annual fee. The Citi Diamond Preferred Card provides cardholders a concierge service, which can be used for just about everything, from booking hotel rooms and flights to purchasing concert tickets and making restaurant reservations. Take advantage of special access to presale tickets, preferred seating, VIP packages, and unique entertainment experiences through Citi Private Pass®. And Citi® Price Rewind searches for a lower price, you can get lower price after you purchase an eligible item using your Citi Diamond Preferred Card, review the card application page for full details and any limitations of this program.

Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa Signature Card. Consistently a reader favorite, the Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa Signature Card offers a unique reward program. Earn 1.5 points for each $1 spent on the first $15,000 in purchases per year, and if you spend more than $15,000 annually that reward is increased to 2 points per $1 in purchases. When you reach 5,000 points they can be converted into deposits into your eligible Fidelity investment account. The card also participates in the WorldPoints program, so if you do not want cash back in your Fidelity account or if you don’t have an investment account, you can redeem for travel on major U.S. airlines with no blackout dates or for purchases from a selection of available merchandise.

Citi ThankYou® Preferred CardCiti ThankYou® Preferred Rewards Card. The cousin of the ThankYou Premier, the Citi ThankYou® Preferred Rewards Card is a scaled-down version of the card with slightly smaller bonuses and rewards. If you spend $1,000 within the first three months of account opening, Citi provides cardholders with 15,000 bonus ThankYou® points, good for a $150 gift card or other rewards. Customers earn extra points when they shop through the ThankYou® Bonus Center, a network of 600+ retailers. Currently there is a 0% introductory APR on balance transfers and purchases for 12 months. After that, the variable APR will be 12.99%-22.99% based upon your creditworthiness.* The Citi ThankYou Preferred Rewards Card has Chip Technology and does not carry an annual fee.

Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American ExpressStarwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card. One of the leading credit cards for travel rewards, the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card offers up to 25,000 bonus Starpoints. Consumers earn those 25,000 bonus Starpoints as follows – 10,000 Starpoints after their first purchase and an additional 15,000 Starpoints after spending $5,000 in the first six months as a cardholder. The card has a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $65. At the recent Financial Blogger Conference, there was a significant consensus at my dinner with a number of top bloggers that the rewards offered on this card and its business counterpart are the best. And your Starpoints can be redeemed for nearly any travel expense. Terms and Restrictions Apply.

TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American ExpressTrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express. Rounding out the best American Express cards, the TrueEarnings® Card from Costco and American Express offers 3% cash back for gasoline purchases at US gas stations, and on gasoline at Costco, of up to $4,000 per year then 1%, 2% cash back on eligible purchases at US restaurants, 2% cash back on eligible travel purchases, including at Costco and 1% on other purchases, including at Costco. Terms and limitations apply and your cash back reward will be in the form of an annual reward coupon. The card has a low comparable variable APR and an introductory offer of 0% APR on purchases for six months, after that, your APR will be a variable rate, currently 15.24%. Terms and Restrictions Apply.

Capital One® Venture℠ Rewards Credit Card. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is as straightforward as it gets. Earn two miles for every dollar you spend and an additional one-time bonus of 10,000 miles when you spend $1,000 in your first three months. There is a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year; $59 after that. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is a Visa Signature card, so the card offers the Signature set of extended benefits such as complimentary concierge services and travel upgrades.

BOA-card-1BankAmericard Cash Rewards™ Card. The BankAmericard Cash Rewards™ Card offers 3% cash back on gasoline purchases, 2% on groceries and 1% on all purchases thereafter. Cardholders have the opportunity to earn an additional 10% cash back if they redeem into a Bank of America checking or savings account. The BankAmericard Cash Rewards Card offers an introductory rate of 0% APR on purchases for the first twelve statement closing dates following the opening of the account. This card does not carry an annual fee.

Visa Platinum RewardsSimmons First Visa Platinum Rewards. The Simmons First Visa Platinum Rewards Card made the list because of its low standard purchase APR. At 9.25% variable, the only card with a lower standard purchase APR we could find was the Simmons First Visa card but that card didn’t have a rewards program. With the Simmons First Visa Platinum Rewards Card, you earn one point for every net dollar you spend, and the card carries no annual fee. If you’re planning to make a balance transfer onto this card, you’ll be happy to know there is no balance transfer fee either.

Note: If you use credit cards as a tool for convenience, pay your bills in full every month, and are otherwise financially self-aware, consider some of these credit cards. If you use credit cards to pay for things you can’t afford, paying interest every month, then start thinking about paying off debt.

The information in this article is believed to be accurate as of the date it was written. Please keep in mind that credit card offers change frequently. Therefore, we can not guarantee the accuracy of the information in this article. Please verify all terms and conditions of any credit card prior to applying. This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.

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Black Friday: The Dark Side of Humanity

This article was written by in Consumer. 21 comments.

It is a sad commentary on our culture when not only are people willing to trample and hurt each other to scramble for what is perceived to be a “good deal” but when such trampling is glorified by the media. (Crazy people drive ratings, and ratings drive large advertising profits for the media!)

No one ever saved money by spending money. Whether because of the economic downturn or due to more media focus on the art of bargain hunting, being able to clip coupons or respond to advertisements touting low prices is now considered a “skill” worthy of attention. Saving money is an important part of building a solid future, but the idea that saving $500 off a high-definition television or finding two years’ worth of toilet paper for $10 is going to move anyone towards that goal is just plain ignorance.

You save money by not spending it. That’s the only guaranteed method of giving yourself the freedom of not needing to worry about your financial situation in the future. That isn’t to say you should never spend money, but it is imperative to recognize that every spending choice requires a decision. With every decision, weigh the financial consequences.

Yes — you could save $500 on an HDTV by beating down the crowd, grabbing the box, and running to the cashier. But you could save much more than $500 by buying a television that was considered cutting-edge just one year ago. You could save more than $500 by waiting a few months for when the new models come out and today’s model is discounted even more. You could save more than $500 by keeping the same television you’ve had that has been working perfectly for the last few years. Sure, there’s something to be said for upgrading your equipment once in a while, but it’s better to do so when you’re not under the perceived pressure that retailers create during the Black Friday frenzy.

The more I see videos of shoppers acting like idiots when stores open the Black Friday gates, the more I lean towards supporting Buy Nothing Day. It’s not a logical response; someone determined to spend $2,000 for himself and another $2,000 for holiday gifts, postponing the purchases until after Black Friday doesn’t have an effect (other than possibly avoiding stressful shopping situations and mobs of death).

Shopping online on Black Friday (or Cyber Monday) is one way to avoid the madness of humanity on this shopping day. In past years, retailers did not properly support their websites, so online shoppers faced frustration when trying to purchase items from popular stores, but these companies have since learned how to prepare their online storefronts for waves of traffic from shoppers’ computers. If you’re going to shop on this crazy day, at least do it from the comfort of your own home (or office on Monday).

Do not obsess yourself with hunting for these deals. For the most part, it’s smoke-and-mirrors and bait-and-switch, to the extent it’s legal, though some retailers are fine pushing the boundaries of false advertising during the holiday season. You’re not doing yourself any favors in the long run regardless of what deals you think you’re getting. At best, you’re getting a good feeling of winning, beating the retailers, or doing something exclusive. These are just psychological mind tricks and you have done nothing to help your long-term financial condition.

If you like finding deals, acknowledge you’re doing it because you like the game, and you’re attracted by the satisfaction, not because it’s a healthy financial skill or an approach to life that will leave you financially better off.

Deal seeking has grown into a huge industry, as I mentioned when I wrote about the hoax of Black Friday. I’ve been writing here at Consumerism Commentary for almost ten years, and many times so-called “experts” in what has become a business of creating successful advertising-based websites in the financial arena have encouraged me to set up an area of this website for the “best deals” or coupons with information fed to the site from advertisers. There are many websites that operate this way, and I have nothing against them or those who operate them, but with my feelings about the detrimental effects of deal-seeking, it was not something I could not do in good conscience.

I’d like to think that most, if not all, Consumerism Commentary readers who do line up outside stores on Black Friday do not trample other people or yell or fight. While not everyone may agree with me about the futility of this kind of deal shopping from a long-term perspective, from the feedback I’ve received over the past decade, most of the community considers financial consequences to spending decisions and isn’t as swayed by deal-focused advertising as the average American consumer.

It’s fine if you want to go shopping on Black Friday. Keep this in mind:

  • Don’t hurt yourself or anyone else.
  • Be respectful of the employees who have to work at the stores and deal with inconsiderate adults acting like children.
  • Recognize the deal you may be getting isn’t that good of a deal.
  • Accept you’re not doing yourself of your family as much as a financial favor you think you are.

Photo: Flickr

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Welcome to Consumerism Commentary

by Luke Landes
Luke Landes

If you are new to Consumerism Commentary, start here. My name is Luke Landes, and I am the founder of Consumerism Commentary. I started this website in 2003 to hold myself accountable for my choices pertaining to my financial condition. Over the subsequent years, Consumerism Commentary has grown into one of the most popular blogs ... Continue reading this article…

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Rescheduling My Life: Grocery Delivery

by Luke Landes
Groceries

On Sunday, I decided to take another shot at improving my time management skills. For as long as I can remember, time management has never been my strength. Always drawn to activities I find exciting, sometimes my responsibilities suffered. I’ve been through a number of programs and read a number of books designed to improve ... Continue reading this article…

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Ignore Your Mail and Lose Thousands of Dollars

by Luke Landes

The prevalence of junk mail and spam has certainly made weeding out noise more difficult over the last decade. With email, software does a great job of hiding the junk and making the legitimate messages obvious, but there are occasional mistakes. Spam might show up in my inbox a few times each week, while I ... Continue reading this article…

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Individualized Coupons Aid Price Discrimination

by Luke Landes
Grocery store

I’m not a fan of allowing companies to track every purchasing decision I make, but I’ve sacrificed some of my expectations for privacy in return for convenience. I use my credit card for most purchases, and over the years, credit card issuers could have created a database with my transaction history and could theoretically use ... Continue reading this article…

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