Black Friday Swings into Full Speed Today

Tons of Black Friday shoppers flocked to the stores and malls for Christmas gifts today.

I'm not much of a Black Friday fan, and I'm not into buying a lot of Christmas gifts, but I don't have anything personal against it. The only thing that turns me off about it is the infantile fighting that occurs between customers at the shopping aisles.

If I were to do any Christmas shopping, I'd prefer to do it online, where you don't have to put up with the hassle of finding the latest products that are either in low supply or out of stock. I realize it's not the best way of securing your Christmas gifts for the Yuletide season, but it certainly does beat going to a store and purchasing lots of gifts that can cost you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

Moreover, the deals at the stores may not be the best deals at all. That's a hard-hitting reality to most people, considering the fact that most Americans as of today are in serious debt one way or another. Imagine the interest rates accrued to your credit cards if you owe money to your creditors. Most Americans are buying items that may be overpriced, and the quality may not be worth the money spent on them. Additionally, most people don't take into account that, once you charge your credit card and the fixed APR rate (unless it's variable) is, say, 12 percent, you will end up paying interest on that card and will take you a long while to pay them off. People don't plan their shopping in advance anyway, so they end up maxing out their cards and not use cash at all. In a nutshell, there's no spending controls on their part.

If Americans are going to shop for items for Christmas, that's why they need to junk their charge cards and use cash instead. That way, you won't be in debt and you won't be paying high interest rates that can eat up your savings in the long term.