“And if I change my mind

A million times...”

— Shania Twain

I hate certain types of credit. I don’t own a credit card and I don’t want one. Payday lending, tax refund anticipation loans and other forms of legalized loan sharking should be outlawed.

I’ve watched many people get in trouble with upside down car loans, second mortgages or from using high interest rate financing.

Credit keeps many people from living within their means.

Then a friend told me he was buying a large house.

My buddy is a financial genius. He is someone you never heard of — and he wants it that way. He drives a modest car and lived in a modest home, both of which he paid for in cash. He is more interested in his portfolio than pretense. He is a self-made success.

He said that with the housing market depressed and interest rates below 5 percent, it made good financial sense to buy a nice house and finance it for 15 years.

I’m not sure he really wanted a nicer house. He just saw it as a financial opportunity.

He is rarely wrong and never makes irrational moves. He got me to thinking again about the evils of credit.

There are times when credit is good, when it is used responsibly by the people who can handle it.

For example, take someone in a high tax bracket who is financing a house. If he borrows the money at 5 percent, the actual cost in most cases will be roughly 3 percent, after taxes. If he used the house money for an immediate annuity, he would have the cash flow to pay the mortgage, get the mortgage interest deduction and participate in any increase in value of the house. (I am assuming that sometime in the next 15 years, houses will appreciate in value again.) In the meantime, the mortgage and annuity rates would stay the same.

That is a fairly low-risk way to use credit.

He could also put his money in the stock market and make big gains. Or lose his shirt.

There has been a lot of shirt-losing in the past couple of years.

Investing in the stock market can be like going to the race track. There are going to be winners and there are going to be losers. People should understand that any investment involves risk.

In the subprime, “too big to fail,” anything goes market that brought on the financial crisis, some people forgot about risk.

Those are the people that I don’t want to have credit. None at all.

Many are losing their shirts by paying outrageous fees and interest on credit cards.

Credit cards can take 20 to 30 percent a year in interest plus really outrageous fees. Guaranteed. And you don’t get a tax deduction.

I can’t think of a worse investment than that.

I watched so many people fall off the wagon on credit cards, that I bought into the “just say no” philosophy on any credit.

A pioneer in the “never borrow money” philosophy was the Christian author and lecturer, Larry Burkett. In the mid 1970’s, he founded a non-profit organization called Christian Financial Concepts, that used biblical principles in guiding people with their finances. One of those principles was no debt whatsoever.

Burkett was extremely popular in Christian circles until his death in 2003 but he never reached a mainstream audience. Dave Ramsey has.

Ramsey has a syndicated radio show and a nightly program on the Fox Business News Network. Ramsey acknowledges Burkett’s influence in his book, “Financial Peace.”

Although, like Burkett, Ramsey focuses his attention on churches and Christian communities, he reaches every demographic. His message of savings and sacrifice and never borrowing money is one that many people need to hear.

Then I think about my friend. I am sure his new home is a smart financial move.

Credit in moderation can be good. But like any addiction, credit can be the worst nightmare of your life.

I understand there are some circumstances where a home mortgage is a great idea, but don’t be looking for me in any Capital One commercials in the near future.

Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group, a structured settlement consulting firm in Richmond, Ky. Write to Don at don@donmcnay.com.