Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away. Which means that for many, Christmas shopping season will be in full swing. It also means that many will put their Christmas bills on their credit cards. But if you can’t pay off your cards, you might want to think twice about making the purchase in the first place. According to the Federal Reserve, Americans owe a record 1.04 trillion dollars in credit card debt. That’s a lot of debt and it’s up from less than 854 billion dollars just five years ago. Forty percent of Americans have enough income to pay off their balance. This means that the remaining 60% maintain a balance which results in hundreds if not thousands of dollars in high interest payments over the long haul. There’s a proverb that says that the borrower is slave to the lender. In the case of revolving credit card balances, that’s a heavy burden in more ways than one.