San Diego, CA. - Things do seem to be getting a bit out of kilter on the financial side of our lives here lately. Gold is spiking, crude oil and the retail prices of its refined products are skyrocketing, the hot real estate market is cooling a bit, and spending, well, it continues to go unchecked.

There will be downward adjustments, some very severe, to be faced in the future. This is especially true for individuals who speculated in real estate with interest-only mortgages. And also those college students who are financing their education with high-interest credit cards.

The real supporters of the credit card cause, however, are all of those individuals who paid an estimated $16.4 billion in penalty fees in 2005 - 70% of which were late fees. Not surprisingly some five to six percent of cardholders are late with their payments every month. Universal default was no doubt created with those particular cardholders in mind. Because of an increasing reliance on fee income, creditors are now more closely monitoring credit reports of their current clients for signs of trouble, especially with other lenders and invoking the universal default clause, resulting in even higher fees.

In 1994 late fees averaged $12.55. By 2000 the average reached $27.10 and by 2005 the average was up to $34.42 according to Consumer Action. Despite this startling insight to the enormous income from late fees, credit card spending remains largely unchecked in many American households.

Everyday spending decisions, especially credit based ones, will do far more harm to your financial future than any investment decision you will likely ever make. That has been one of the ICFE's main mantras for over twenty years. So, the question when people are out spending becomes: "Is the price right?"

Improving spending techniques enables most consumers to get a better value for their dollar. One of the easiest steps is to comparison shop before spending. A recent example of the benefits is a comparison of prices for prescription medicine.

ICFE shopped three different stores. Costco, a membership store and two major retail drug chains, Savon and RiteAid. In all cases 100 pills were requested for three different medicines. Metformin (diabetes), Metoprolol and Nifedical XL (both blood pressure) pills.