Welcome to TGIF Two Girls Investing Friday. the
podcast that proves you don't need a finance
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just two regular girls who decided to take control
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on our own investing journeys. No jargon, no
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to help you grow your wealth and confidence.
So grab a coffee, get cozy, and let's get into
it. Okay, we are back. New year. Wow, after a
big break. Yes, such a needed break, but I'm
so excited to be back into this. Yeah, me too.
For those of you listening, Jess and I see each
other usually once a week, and we were so busy
in December that we didn't see each other at
all. I don't think we've seen each other for
like three weeks almost. At least. Which is crazy.
It's crazy for us. Yeah. So we are catching up
on the podcast. Yeah, we're catching up live
right now with you guys. Which I'm excited about.
We're going to talk about our December. So today
we're going to talk about... what December looks
like for us and maybe a bit of a reflection on
what our year looked like with our finances and
our money. So I'm excited to get into that part.
Let's talk about December, our three weeks of
like minus 45 to minus 50 degrees Celsius weather.
Yeah, we haven't had a stint of weather like
that in, not since I've been home. So I don't
know if listeners, if you know, but I grew up
here, but then I moved away after high school
to Calgary and lived there for 15 years. I've
been back on Whitehorse now for four years. Since
I've been back, we have not had a winter like
that at all. I think we usually get like minus
20 or we would get minus 40, it'd be for a few
days and then it would break. This was a relentless
three weeks of minus 40 to minus 50 that would
not let up. Like the actual air was frozen. It
was ice fog. So any condensation from like car
exhaust, instantly frozen air, I could barely
see two feet in front of my car. No. And usually
for us... Like you said, when we get minus, even
minus 30 is a little bit more common than like
minus 50. When we get weather like minus 30 and
it's like that for a few days and, you know,
nobody's outside, but at least there's blue sky
and there's sun. But this time, like you said,
there was that ice fog and it was so cloudy that
you, or cloudy with this fog that you couldn't
see in front of you. And it was just, like you
said, it was relentless. Yeah. So it's not only
was the cold, but it was like no sun at all.
It was like three weeks of overcast, freezing
cold. People's cars weren't starting. things
were breaking down they couldn't do snow removal
at times because their machines weren't working
no nothing functions in that way nothing no things
are not built For that weather, or if they are,
it's just for a few days. It's not for like three
weeks. Exactly. That's what I find is we can
like withstand it for a few days and then it
warms up a bit. But yeah, it just kept going.
And we used, for us in our house, we have a wood
stove and a cold air heat pump. And the cold
air heat pump kicks out and turns into electric
at about minus 27, minus 28. And so we were using
our wood stove to save a little bit on our heating.
But we used our entire winter supply of wood
in one month. Yeah. In three weeks. That's insane.
I've heard that from a lot of people actually.
They ran through all their winter wood and they
were out chopping at like minus 40. One of our
friends was telling us about that. Yes. So it's
just like, it's crazy. It's like you think you
plan for these things, but then something happens
and you're like, wow, we're not prepared for
this. It's not for that long. No. And it can
actually get pretty dangerous because if you
run out of firewood and you have to go out cutting
and you can't get wood. Or the risk of frostbite
is super high at minus 40. So high. Especially
if you're trying to do things that you need like
your hand dexterity with. It's actually quite
dangerous and it's pretty risky. I don't know
about you, but I almost got frostbite at least
five different times. Yeah, same. One of them,
I was taking kids to dance and I forgot my phone
in the car and it was a little bit of a walk.
But because I walked from the dance studio to
the car and back to the dance studio, my nose
was so frozen. It hurt so bad for like two days
after. Oh, really? And I had my hood up and I
had my like, my face was covered, but my nose
wasn't covered. Oh my God. It was like a three
minute walk. Yeah. It's scary. It's dangerous.
So like for me, I find like, yeah, minus 30 feels
cold. Minus 40 feels cold. They both feel cold.
The difference is time because at minus 30, you
can walk for three minutes outside and like,
you don't actually have any risk of having frostbite.
Yes. At minus 40, if something's not covered,
you actually do have that risk of getting frostbite.
Yeah. So it's like. parking at the hospital when
i was walking from my car inside i was actually
in physical pain and i was pretty fully covered
and my hands and my my face felt like they were
gonna freeze off yeah so it would have been like
i had to punch my coat in to get into the hospital
and it like wasn't working and like because i
have my big mitt on i have to take my mitt off
to press the buttons and the buttons burnt my
hand and you can't pull the door handle open
unless you have a mitt on like you cannot put
your bare skin on no it will literally freeze
your hand off it's just little things like that
that you're like wow i have to actually be careful
like whoa by health i don't lose my fingers i
cannot imagine how many people were at the hospital
with frostbite over that period a lot and over
and over and over because like you said it was
like relentless it wasn't just a few days and
it it just really dragged on yeah it's crazy
we haven't had something like that in quite a
while it's just starting to break now and actually
like halfway through i remember we had like a
little break it warmed up to like minus 25 or
minus 28 yes and i was like oh my god it's so
warm I was like running around outside with the
dog. I'm like, I can finally walk my dog finally
too. Because even if he has booties and a coat
on, like at minus 45, like we can't go for very
long because his ears and his nose will freeze.
Yes. It's so dangerous. My poor dog hasn't had
a walk in like three weeks almost. That's all
of us. I know. So let's talk about some of the
financial implications of that cold weather.
Yeah. And where do we want to start? Let's start
with heating. yeah let's start with heating okay
yeah and then let's go to cars okay so you're
on electric yeah and so just the heating alone
to keep the your house warm at that time is significant
it's so much so we actually got billed just for
this last because it's always a month behind
so we actually got billed for the month before
but it was still expensive it was 400 bucks and
that's not even the cold part our airbnb was
a thousand dollars because we had guests in there
for the whole month like it was like a three
week stint that they were in there they're a
ski team and i think you know they just have
the heat on there's a hot tub they're using the
hot tub they go skiing they want to relax the
hot tub our bill is a thousand dollars and keep
in mind that's not the cold stint yet that was
right before it okay so so i think the cold stint
yeah i don't know the airbnb the heating cost
it's also electric so i think it's going to be
i mean 1200 bucks minimum at least we had less
guests in there so we turned the heat down but
still and our house here is probably going to
be six at least minimum Well, and honestly, I
don't even know because I haven't had a stint
like that. So it's hard to say what it'll be.
And I think for you Connors, for all you Connors,
they're going to really feel that because it's
been, you know, we just had our Christmas season
too. So our expenses are already higher. I imagine
groceries were higher. Gas, which we'll get into.
And so when we get our heating bill, electric
or otherwise, it's going to be. high across the
board it's going to be a hard hit for most Yukoners
so high yeah because again it wasn't a few days
it was like almost an entire month and and it's
warmed up now but Even when I'm saying it's warmed
up now, it's minus 26, minus 28. Yeah. We're
not having minus 20 or warmer. Or minus 15. I
can't even imagine what that would feel like
right now. Like warm for us right now is minus
28. Yeah. So yeah. Warm fingers outside. What
a treat that would be. The other thing too, remember
when it was like minus 45 and the like Atco or
Yukon Electric was like. you guys need to like
turn all your lights off and try not to use your
dishwasher and your washing machine and everything
at the same time because the power grid was so
overwhelmed because the last time we had a stint
like this, we had way less houses in Whitehorse.
We've built so many houses here. Housing is so
expensive. There's not enough houses. So they've
been building like crazy. And they're built on
electricity. And all the new ones are on electric.
So it's pulling so much power from the grid.
So they were actually worried that the power
grid was going to like have a blackout or something,
which in minus 45 is totally dangerous. So that
was also crazy too. They were telling people
to, yeah, stop using so much electricity. Luckily,
nothing happened. We didn't have a blackout or
anything. So yeah. And like I said, for us, we're
on the colder heat pump that kicks into electric.
And we do have an older home. So it does take
a lot more power to heat it. wood stove and we've
gone through all of our wood. And the problem
with that is that there actually is no, or there's
limited wood supply left in the territory. So
it's not like our usual supply that we go to
and who we buy from, they don't have any either.
Yeah. And so everyone else is, everyone's asking
for it, right? Yes. Every single home in Whitehorse
that has a wood stove is now out of their wood.
Yeah. Oil heating was having the same problem
that the guy that delivers it. I think there's
like one or two people that deliver oil heating.
Uh, they, were working around the clock and they
couldn't get to all the houses and so they're
still trying to catch up from that so it's been
an interesting winter those vehicles don't work
well in the cold either so you're going to transport
this oil and like the truck doesn't work the
truck's not working yeah so how do you get there
and i don't have oil heating so i don't know
the correct terminology of this but i know that
oil heating it can start to in that weather get
a bit like sludgy too and so you need a heater
or something to cover your oil tank to also keep
that oil working for your house yeah i was just
gonna say this happened to my parents because
they have a cold air heat pump theirs only works
till minus 20 though okay so obviously they've
kicked into their furnace which is oil their
oil or whatever it is i forget it gelled yes
it started to gel so their furnace wasn't working
so my dad had to go down there get a heater put
like a blanket around it heat up that part so
that the oil furnace would run Like it's just
insane. Nothing functions in this weather. We're
not sure why we live here. Jess is going on a
very hot holiday soon. And I leave tomorrow for
Kenya, you guys. And I'm like, get me out of
here. Tears of joy might stream down my eyes
as I take off from the airport here. Warmer weather.
Although it's supposed to break this week. It
is. And then two weeks, well, in like eight days
from now, which like who knows, they can't actually
forecast that far. It's supposed to be like minus
five. We'll see if that actually happens, but.
For me, what I found was how much gas my car
would go through was absolutely insane. So I
at least double. Yeah. And I was driving and
it was about maybe five kilometers from like
where I started looking at how much gas I had
left because I had about 90 kilometers of gas.
And I was like, OK, great. I can get home and
I can get back to where I need to be. I won't
run out of gas. It was maybe five kilometers
when I looked at it, like to my house. And when
I got home, I had went through 20 kilometers
of gas. Wow. Just from that short stretch. And
so I said, okay, I thought I had enough gas to
do what I need to do because I had to take the
kids to their dance performance. And I was like,
I'll get gas after. But I was like at this rate.
I'm going to run out of gas before I even get
them home. Yeah. And I don't want to be surrounded
at minus 50. Again, which is dangerous. Yes.
So usually my tank lasts me about 10 days, give
or take two days for my driving. I was filling
up every four days. Yeah. Same. Same here. Yeah,
also because you have to like turn your car on
early to let it run to heat up before you can
drive it. You can't drive it cold or else you're
going to screw your car. Yes, you have to let
it run for at least 20. I prefer 30 to really
get it warmed up so that I'm not, so that nothing's
breaking on it. Maybe let's next episode, let's
go into a little bit more of the car issues that
we have and like the mechanical issues that happen
because yes, it's heating, but then the actual
like... physical mechanical issues that also
happen at minus 40 to minus 50 let's get into
cars yeah and kids yeah and i'll share everything
that yeah we had to do with ours um but i want
to now that it's new year and we're back i want
to do a bit of a like review of what the last
12 months looked like for you so think like bigger
picture not into like the nitty -gritty but like
how did finances do how did your investing do
do you like is there areas that you're like okay
i could have been a little bit tighter here or
like i'm really proud of this part here yeah
for 2026 i think yeah 2026 was a big year for
me actually because we did a lot of things it
was a really good year in the stock market thankfully
so my stock investments were up which is great
we also decided to buy that second um the rental
house up down duplex which was a big decision
and then we had this trip to kenya so i think
overall i feel pretty good about it i could have
saved in a lot of areas i could have saved a
lot in eating out there's just there's always
a lot of birthdays there's a lot of things to
celebrate and you know sometimes on those days
when like like oh we just don't want to cook
we would go out um where i spent a lot of money
was traveling so Like I know, which I said before
is I don't feel bad about, but a lot of my money
went to that. So like not even traveling internationally,
but even just traveling in Canada. Like I went
to Ottawa. I went to Saskatchewan. I went to
Vancouver. We're going on this big trip. So I
flew a lot this year. So that's where a lot of
my money went. But overall, you know what? I'm
feeling pretty good. At this moment in time,
I feel tight because we just had Christmas. I
have this trip coming up. May, we have to pay
the rest of the down payment for the new house.
So right now I'm a bit stretched. And I will
say, like, I know I've shared before that I hit
this milestone. Well, I had $150 ,000 invested
and then it... over the year last little bit
went up to 160 000 and this was just all from
like my hard grit and determinations it wasn't
any money that people have given me i've just
been like socking it away for 10 years and the
growth that it's had and the growth a lot of
that is growth yeah i actually and Once I look
it up, I'll say how much of that is actually
just growth from the stock market. I would want
to know how much in the last year you've put
in and what has been from growth. Yeah, just
basically free money from investing. So yeah,
I know that I have that investment, but that's
long -term. Sometimes even though I have that,
I feel like I don't have a lot of money sometimes
because... i don't touch that in my mind that's
non -touchable money that's not money that i
have so my day -to -day like spending in my checkings
account fluctuates and like that's what i base
what i have on so even though it might sound
like i got a lot of money it doesn't feel like
it all the time right because i'm you know getting
paid and have all these expenses and this money
into my investments is coming out automatically
so right now i don't feel like i have a lot of
money feels tight because it feels really tight
yeah so a lot of it's going to this trip and
yeah things in the future so but overall you
know I would say the 2026 was a pretty good year
yeah and I think that's a really relatable feeling
for all of us whether we have debt that we're
paying off like I am or whether we're investing
and that money we're not touching yeah I think
everybody can relate that it just does feel really
tight yeah like sometimes I feel broke even though
I have this investment account because that I
know I'm not going to pull for life expenses
that's not unless I really have to you know so
But that's not your like today money. Exactly.
When I look back at my 2025, I think definitely
roller coaster, which is great. That's like normal.
And I also spent a little more eating out and
definitely I did really good for a while cutting
back on my coffees out. The month of December,
I'm at the store 24 -7 it feels like. So really
early mornings and late nights and I'm just not
home. Hey, you were there a lot. Yeah. So I also
expect that I'm going to be spending a little
bit more on coffees. I probably could have cut
back a little, but that's okay. And I think that's
clouding where I see the year. But when I look
back, I did a really good chunk down on one of
my higher interest debts that has been really
weighing me down. Nice. And I feel like I see
the... felt like I've seen the end of the tunnel
on that one and I feel like I see it now. Yay.
So I'm hoping by March that that one will be
like cleared off. Which is, yeah. Such a great
feeling. It's very exciting. So that has been
really exciting for me. And I look back and I
talk about where I don't spend money after 6
p .m. And when I don't pay attention like that,
if you asked me two years ago, I probably would
be like almost, maybe not weekly, but maybe bi
-weekly. I would be buying something online at
like 10 p .m. Some ad that got you? Yes, an ad
or Amazon or even something locally where I'm
just like buying it and picking it up, not really
being super conscious of it. And I think if I
look back at like 2025, there's probably five,
maybe seven times I've done that in the last
year, which for me is really, really big. That
is really good. That's a huge cut. Yeah. And
then I could pinpoint exactly what they were.
I think. If it was before I was really conscious
about that, I wouldn't even be able to pinpoint
it because I'd be like, it's everything. Yeah.
And that's the thing. It's progress, not perfection.
So like you haven't eliminated it completely,
but you've cut it down way too much, which is
like significant. We're not going to be perfect.
None of us are going to do everything perfectly.
And I don't feel bad about any of those expenses.
I maybe would have waited until the next morning,
which is what I usually do. But we're all human.
And we have times where we're tired or exhausted
or it's minus 50 and our judgment is clouded
by that. It's gone. There's no judgment. Yeah.
So that's totally... normal but it's really cool
for me to look back and say okay you know you
actually really did stick to that for you and
yeah so that will carry forward and has been
impacting my finances in a good way and remember
all that money you saved now that you're putting
it down in your debt and then you're gonna invest
it it's actually more than just that amount say
it was like a $50 thing you're actually gonna
save more than $50 in the long run yes which
we've talked about that like that mindset and
I think next episode let's talk about more on
the value of a dollar and mindset around it you
know being January being the new year what that
looks like and how you perceive that dollar so
it's not just the dollar spent let's talk about
more on that one because I really like that potential
earnings of that dollar in the future yes and
changing your mindset for 2026. Yeah. Let's do
it. Start the year right. We're going to wrap
this up. So join us next episode where we talk
about the value of a dollar and a little bit
more about expenses living in the North. Yeah.
And I'm also going to tell you guys exactly what
a trip to Kenya costs. So if you're curious,
I will break down all, I'm just going to dish
all the details about what I'm spending on my
trip to Kenya. I love it. That's it for this
week. Thanks so much for joining us. Don't forget
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learning, and we'll see you next Friday.