"Spending money you haven't earned yet is like using up years you haven't lived yet." --MHoppe9581@aol.com

Thanks for the opener, MHoppe. We had been wrestling for weeks with a way to kick off a section that covers a prickly topic when we happened upon this post on the Credit Cards message board. In a pithy turn of phrase, this Fool summarizes the consequences of credit card debt: it steals from your future to pay for your present.

Last year Americans charged up more than $400 billion on their cards, according to RAM Research, a credit-card tracker. That'd be just fine, if it weren't for the interest they paid for the privilege. That $50 billion in finance charges could have bought the inventory of 5,000 Jag dealerships. Or a 2,000-season contract with Michael Jordan. Or Nike, the company, with $34 billion to spare.

Instead, the only beneficiaries of this monumental sum were the suspendered executives at the lending institutions who probably used the money to buy more suspenders and some lovely paperweights. (Take a moment to remove your cards from your wallet, fan them across the kitchen table, and pay homage to the marketing geniuses whose names are artfully hologrammed on the front.) They've managed to peddle their services so effectively that they have more than one billion cards in circulation -- four for every man, woman, and child. On average, these folks carry a $5,800 balance on their cards from month to month, paying an average 18.3% in interest. That amounts to $929.70 a year in interest payments. We're talking $929.70 that won't even get you a cheese pizza. Or pay for the phone call to order it.

How do those guys do it? Simple, they bank on the fact that the average everyday, red-blooded, consuming adult isn't doing the math. After all, who in their right mind would pay 18% interest on every purchase? And lenders keep you by extending lines of credit, reducing minimum payment requirements, and inching up the interest rate.

But you, Fool, are not average. You understand the golden rules of plastic use -- pay off your cards every month, don't spend what you don't have, budget for the big items and emergencies.

Still, debt happens. Especially around the holidays. So herewith you'll find some tips on helping you get a handle on it.