Hot Tip For The Melbourne Cup

For the first time ever Word4Life comes this week with a hot tip for the Melbourne Cup. Here is my tip: walk past the TAB, walk to your bank and place a bet on something sure - reducing your debt!

So you think you can pick a winner? My advice is simple: the only real winners are the bookies and the TAB. So do something Shocking with Profound Beauty, break Precedence and follow your head to the bank to reduce your debts, just like Mr Medici would. With people drowning in a trifecta of personal, credit card and mortgage debt, the hot tip is to watch the race but bet on a sure thing - reducing your debts.

Churches and welfare organisations are reporting increasing numbers of people struggling to pay the bills and feed their families because of debt. In this context, why not consider not wasting your money on a horse race where you are almost sure to lose, when you could take your money and reduce the debt on your credit card, which is charging you up to 20% interest.

Australians currently owe over one trillion dollars in mortgages on their houses and over forty billion dollars on their credit cards. Traditionally in NSW and Victoria alone, almost one hundred million dollars is bet on the Melbourne Cup. The GFC around the world was caused basically by two things: Government debt, that in many countries is out of control; and private and corporate debt, which in many countries is also enormous and crippling. Australia was saved the worst of the GFC because our Government did not have debt, but we as a people sure do. Now the Government has saved us by taking on debt, we are all very vulnerable and the lesson to be learned from overseas is he who has the largest debt is eventually in the most trouble.

A horse race with a large field means most people, most years, lose on the Melbourne Cup. Sure it’s a national obsession and media frenzy, but maybe listening to the prophet is more important than allowing the gambling industry to make a profit. I have no doubt that I will be called un-Australian for this note, but who cares!

The old saying is true that gambling is a tax on the stupid.

It’s about time we wised up and invested in a sure thing - the reduction of our debts.

The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Proverbs 22: 7