In December many of us use our credit cards to take care of holiday shopping.   I have a feeling many investors have to take distributions from their IRA accounts or loans from 401k's to pay off those cards after those holiday statements arrive.  Thats unfortunate, as Uncle Sam is really  the beneficiary of those early withdrawals.  You'll be paying taxes on those IRA withdrawals and a penalty.

Here's an alarming credit card number:

Balances are rising

Average credit-card balance per household: $9,159 in 2005 - 17 percent more than the average balance five years before.

We are using cards more

In the first six months of 2006, the volume of purchases on Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover rose 12.8 percent from the year before. In total, $840 billion was charged on cards from those issuers in the first half.