It’s not to your credit to have high credit card debt

It’s always a good practice to avoid credit card debt, especially with those high interest rates charged on unpaid balances.

So it’s concerning that Hawaii residents carry the second-highest average credit card debt in nation, at $4,251.24, according to a new report by NerdWallet.com. Only Alaska, at $ 5,081.34, was higher. Wyoming was third with $4,244.73.

While not surprising in high-priced Honolulu — where cost-of-living expenses exceeded income growth by 3.76 percent — it should serve as a warning, especially during this holiday shopping season. Spend wisely.

Waianae High gets its groove back

It was music to the ears of performing-art lovers everywhere: Waianae High School reinstated its academic music program, after a seven-year absence.

Classes for credit in ukulele, band and choir are back on the menu. Since 2008, such elective classes, pushed out by the subjects deemed more “core” to the heavy-testing regime, were offered after school as a voluntary program — as if music isn’t mentally challenging.

Advocates would dispute that very premise, and there’s science to back them up. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have watched dozens of musicians improvise while lying down for an MRI scan and noted that the same parts of the brain dealing with mathematics light up.

So, keep practicing, kids. It’s good for the brain.