July 2 Update: Reader question on Amex Gold, Air Canada Rouge to fly Toronto-London Gatwick, Alitalia MilleMiglia Status Match offer + MORE Jul 2nd

People like to complain about aging but one of the upsides—particularly in your 40s—is being able to build wealth. For many, the 40s is a great decade—your paycheques are climbing while debt’s heading in the opposite direction. Finally, you can breathe. Heck, you can even afford an occasional night on the town without dreading the credit card bill. Just don’t start easing up on all the progress you’ve been making. Sure, you’ve already put aside a nice chunk of change for the kids’ college fund and the mortgage is finally creeping down—so let that financial momentum inspire you to achieve even more. Remember, at the end of your 40s retirement won’t seem that far away.
Master your debt
“By this decade you’re hopefully getting toward the end of your mortgage,” says Dan Hallett, director of asset management for HighView Financial Group. “More of the payments are now going to the principal, and you’re less sensitive to those payments.” So if you’re on track with a reasonable plan, don’t feel pressured to divert cash flow away from money you’ve been setting aside for your nest egg…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plans to monitor 95% of all credit-card transactions by 2016.

Banks and credit card issuers are turning to a powerful new tool to communicate and interact with their customers: push notifications

Good Morning! We hope that everyone had a great Canada Day! News, Tips & Tricks We’ll start the day off with a reader question. Louise asks :If I sign up for a Amex Gold, do I get the 25,000 sign up bonus as soon as I spend $500 or do I have to wait 3 months? Thxs.”And the answer is: “In most cases you should get the 25K within a few days of hitting the $500 level. At the very latest it would be on your first statement date after you hit the $500.” In my personal experience I’ve seen it post within the few days of hitting $500 but have also known of others where it has taken a little longer.Air Canada seems to making making a pre-emptive strike at WestJet. As you all know we passed along the news a few weeks ago that WestJet will start serving London-Gatwick with their new Boeing 767s next summer. What WestJet didn’t tell us is which cities in Canada they were planning on flying from. Most are/were guessing Calgary and Toronto. We’re now thinking Toronto may not be high on that list anymore as Air Canada Rouge has announced service between Toronto and London Gatwick starting in May 2016! The flight will operate daily basis with a Rouge 767-300ER…

If you read the Globe & Mail and/or Toronto Star print editions you may have noticed a full page advertorial from Aeroplan discussing redemption options from one of Canada’s largest and well known loyalty programs. I was one of the people asked to attend the roundtable and spent an afternoon at Aimia’s office in Montreal being interviewed along with two other Aeroplan members and two employees of Aeroplan. The discussions were interesting and it was nice to hear the good and the not so good stories. The advertorial from Aeroplan is meant to focus on the value of Aeroplan and the good so you won’t hear about the side that has issues, but the one thing you have to remember it is not only Aeroplan that has them. There will be haters who totally disagree with the piece and then there will be those who love Aeroplan and will agree with what is said. This is always the case with features like this. We even get emails from people who disagree with our credit card rankings and that is why we state, even with years of research, that it boils down to opinion and experience…