Rome mayor cleared in expense account scandal that cost job + MORE Oct 7th

In our April 2016 issue of MoneySense, we introduced you to Sammu and Mandy Dhaliwall, a young married couple with three kids from Brampton, Ont. They are trying to juggle RRSPs, TFSAs, paying down their $350,000 mortgage as well as their $90,000 home equity line of credit.  Throughout the year we gave them a financial challenge every four weeks to help them get their finances in tip top shape. Make sure to follow along! For their latest challenge, we asked them to read Moolala by Bruce Sellery and to write about three money lessons they learned from the book. Here’s what they had to say. 
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Both Mandy and I found Moolala by Bruce Sellery—along with its accompanying exercises—an interesting read on how to manage money more effectively. Both of us had already gone through similar money exercises before but these served as good refreshers…

ROME – A court has cleared the ex-mayor of Rome in an expense account scandal that cost him his job and plunged the already troubled city administration into a year of chaos.
A defiant Ignazio Marion emerged from the courthouse Friday denouncing the political elites of his own Democratic Party who brought him down and said it was up to each one to apologize.
Marino resigned under pressure a year ago after questions arose over whether he used the city hall credit card to expense family dinners.
The court found no crime was committed but Marino said the damage was done.
He says “one year ago, democracy was wounded in our capital. The truth was denied and hundreds of thousands of Romans were violated of their democratic choice for mayor.”
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Q: I may be coming into an inheritance and I want to know if it would be better to pay off all the debt I have or invest the money? I have the following debt:
Mortgage: $60,000, at 2.5%, variable rate
Line of credit: $20,000 at 5.7%, variable rate
Car loan: $24,000 at 3.75%
I am 62 years old and the thought of being debt-free is very appealing, but also want to make the best financial decision for the long run.
— McFeely, Alberta

Nawar Naji, mortgage broker with Mortgage Architects:  
The answer to your question really depends on a few factors:
1) When is your retirement date? i.e, how many more income earning years do you have?
2) Do you have any other savings, such as RRSPs, that will be used during your retirement years?  
Now, if you have a few working years left and you have a retirement plan, then consider paying off the high interest debt first (line of credit at 5.7%). Paying off a depreciating asset (car loan) is not the best idea. If there are additional funds in the inheritance consider investing them into cash producing (such as dividend stock) to supplement your retirement  income…

News, Tips & Tricks We completed a couple more media interviews over the past few days now that AIR MILES says they have revised how the reward catalog displays to members. No longer is it dynamically based on your AIR MILES program usage and website usage but now it will have rewards based on your level within the program. Rewards will vary depending on whether you are Blue, Gold or Onyx with the higher elite levels apparently having access to more rewards. They also state this was implemented ‘late summer’, convenient isn’t it that the change supposedly came before the launch of the Class Action lawsuit as this change could nullify the lack of access to rewards portion of the suit. I smell something fishy here…..Anyways lets test it! I am Gold member with nearly 9,000 miles and this is what shows up for me for electronics:If you are a Blue member or an Onyx member we would love to see what you have showing in the same category. Make sure you do a ‘full’ login, that is click on ‘your profile’ and ‘view transactions’ so that you have to use your pin to login…