Thank you. Welcome to TGIF, Two Girls Investing
Friday, the podcast that proves you don't need
a finance degree or a trust fund to build wealth.
We're just two regular girls who decided to take
control of our money, and now we're helping you
do the same. Each week we break down investing,
money, and mindset in a way that's actually fun
and easy to understand. We are not financial
advisors. We're just two friends sharing what
we've learned on our own investing journeys.
No jargon, no intimidation, just real talk and
real strategies to help you grow your wealth
and confidence. So grab a coffee, get cozy, and
let's get into it. Okay, we are back after a
bit of a break because Jess was in Kenya. Yeah,
I don't know if you noticed or not, but we didn't
have an episode last week and that was because
I was away. And we originally planned to maybe
record while I was away, but there was no way
it was going to happen. So we did not get it
together, but it's been a great month. There's
been lots of listeners. So thank you for joining
us. And Jess, tell us about how Kenya was. Yeah,
Kenya was amazing. I don't even know where to
begin. Like, I feel like where I was going for
two months because we did so many things that
felt really long and really... Yeah, it was just
a great trip overall. We started with the safari
first, which was amazing because we saw so many
animals up close and personal. Unbelievable.
Like more animals than I even thought we would
ever see. Oh my gosh. It was unbelievable. And
just seeing the landscape of the Masai Mara Park
was unbelievable. And then we went to the coast,
which when I originally thought of Kenya, I didn't
think of it having like a... tropical coast but
it has like an amazing coast with white sand
beaches and like beautiful so yeah really close
to the equator so it was really hot but on the
financial side of things it was interesting because
most things there are bought and sold in their
local currency which is canyon shillings but
a lot of the touristy stuff is in usd Which can
be a killer for us in Canada. Because the exchange
rate is so hard. The exchange rate sucks, right?
Like it just flat out sucks for us. Yeah, it
does. It really eats up like a lot of your budget.
Yeah. So a lot of the tipping on the safari and
just like... at the resort and stuff too any
of the touristy stuff it's done in usd so that
was one thing that i had read about but i didn't
realize how much it was actually used there so
that was kind of a bit of a killer on the trip
but the rest of it was in kenyan shillings and
it's about a thousand kenyan shillings is about
ten dollars canadian so it was an easy exchange
rate to kind of do in your head that's nice and
their money's beautiful it's like colorful and
it's kind of like canadian money like you had
some here Yeah. I have some on the counter here.
Yeah. Oh, it does look somewhat Canadian. It
kind of looks like Canadian money. Yeah. Yeah.
And their coins are really nice too. So yeah,
overall, amazing trip. Trip of a lifetime. Unbelievable.
It was an adventure. Was there any, when you're
on a safari, was there any animals that you were
like, I forgot that even existed or like, I didn't
realize I would see that here? Or did you kind
of know all of them that you were going to see?
Well, the biggest one I thought is like the antelopes
are so small. They're tiny. So the gazelles and
the impalas are super tiny. They're like the
size of like a small dog, like really tiny. Oh
my gosh. Yeah, but then the Impalas have these
huge antlers. So that I was shocked by how tiny
they were. But no, I think it was like all the
stuff I knew that what I was going to see. um
the warthogs were hilarious actually yeah tons
of warthogs and they were so funny yeah um and
then obviously my favorite was the giraffe yeah
giraffes which we talked about oh man i saw so
many giraffes and so up close they're so they
have like little like personalities kind of yeah
like just they just kind of walk around and like
you think they'd be really kind of clunky and
clumsy but they're so graceful like we saw one
run across the road and up this bank And it was
like so graceful, but it looks like they move
so slow when they're walking. Yeah, for their
height, but they like just clear so much ground.
It's crazy. That's so cool. Yeah. So we kind
of talked about the cost of my trip last time.
If you guys have any questions about it or you
want to hear more about like the cost and what
I ended up spending or how much things cost over
there, pop something in the comments because
we can talk about it a little bit more. Did you
have any surprise expenses that you were like,
that was more than I thought it was going to
cost or that was less than I thought it was going
to cost? The scuba diving, actually. We did a
scuba diving trip and it was actually quite a
bit more expensive. I thought it was going to
be, I think it ended up being 220 Canadian. So
it was like 170 US or something. And it was a
bit more than I was expecting. I thought it to
be a little bit cheaper there, but. But the scuba
diving was really amazing. I saw some sea turtles
for the first time. Yeah, I swam with sea turtles.
It was like a dream of mine. That is so cool.
Big gigantic ones, right? Big gigantic sea turtles.
Big green turtles and then the hawks build turtles.
Yeah, so it's like always been a dream of mine
to see turtles. And I've scuba dived and snorkeled
a few times and I've never seen the sea turtles.
So it was like, yeah, it was a really cool experience.
So in the grand scheme of things, worth the money
to spend on the scuba diving. That life experience.
Exactly, yeah. Like I said before, one of the
things I don't mind spending money on is on like
traveling experiences. Because when I'm dying,
I'm not going to be like, oh, I wish I still
had that $200 from scuba diving. Totally. You're
going to be like, I saw sea turtles and I swam
with them. I know, yeah. We actually saw dolphins
when we were on the boat, too, on the way out
there. So it was cool. What an experience. Yeah.
So part of what we shared before our little break
was that I was going to share a little bit more
about how I turned my love for shopping into
a business. Yeah. And I think this could honestly
be like an eight part series. So I'll try to
keep it a little bit concise and a little bit
more on like that financial lens. Yeah. I started
a subscription box out of my house featuring
all Canadian small businesses a few years ago.
And that grew into a retail store, a smaller
one, and then a year and a half go into a bigger
retail space. And we ship Canada wide, which
is great. And I really started the business because
I was looking for small businesses. specifically
Canadian small businesses to support and it was
hard to find and I also found if I found one
and I want to order like a product from one business
I'm paying shipping on that and then if I want
to order another product from another business
because I want to support a few businesses I'm
paying shipping on all these businesses and so
it was a way for me to say there might be a bit
of a others might feel the same way as me and
they might be wanting kind of this put together
curated box of items And so I started doing that,
but also selfishly so that I could also get those
items. Yeah, yeah. Like shop, then also make
money from shopping. Yes. And I like, I love
to look around, see what's out there, like see
what's trending. Like I love all of that kind
of stuff. And so for me to be looking for brands
or businesses to feature, it's actually a part
that I really like to do. And it kind of like.
makes me it feels that that spot of me that i
like and i'm not actually like going and spending
on all these places yeah you found so many products
that i've never even heard of before yeah yeah
and they're all and they're all canadian yeah
and most of them are owned by women too yes majority
women owned majority like made in canada some
things are out or outsourced or sourced from
internationally But most of them are, yeah, like
a small business where they're like making it,
you know, in these small spaces. So it's really
cool. Yeah. And what I think is really cool is
you started this actually before this whole like
Canada first thing started. Yes. With, you know,
the States and Donald Trump and people not wanting
to support US as much. You started this before
and now it's really relevant because of this
movement that's going on where people want to
keep the money in Canada and want to support
Canada more. Yeah. So it's like you're in such
a good position right now. Yes. And there's so
much exposure for those businesses that maybe
they don't always get that either because they
don't have that reach. Yeah. Whereas we're, you
know, sending boxes every quarter to, you know,
I think we're at 70 now, but my goal is to get
up to 100 in the next few weeks here. Amazing.
Into like 100 homes across Canada. It's great.
So it's cool that those businesses... has got
that exposure too. It's really nice because a
lot of the times too, they might be beat out
by a similar product in the US or something that's
bigger and they have more resources and more
reach. And now you can kind of give that exposure
to the Canadian companies. Exactly. Or they're,
yeah, those other companies are paying large
amounts for advertising that small businesses
just don't have access to. Yeah. And you're basically
advertising for them because you're sending their
product out to all these homes in Canada. Yeah.
Amazing. Yeah. I love it. It's very cool. And
on the financial side, some of the things I didn't
really think about when I, part of it I did,
but there's some things I thought about and some
kind of like added bonuses that I got out of
starting my business. And one of the reasons
I also started the business is that there is
a lot of really good tax incentives for owning
a business out of your home. And so you can,
you know, add part of that as expenses, your
heating, your utilities. your cell phone bill,
things like that. So I get to put that on my
taxes as expenses. Yeah. Gas sometimes too. Gas.
Yeah. And the other part that is now one of my
favorite parts that I like that I didn't think
of when I started was, or I thought of, but I
also didn't anticipate that my business would
grow to where it's at today. But I have a business
credit card and I earn points on that every month.
And I'm spending a lot on it for the space and
for the products and the boxes. And so that's
all through the business, but I get the points
of that. And so we're actually saving up for
a family trip next year that I'll mostly be able
to use on those points. Amazing. That's not on
my personal credit card. It's all from my business.
Amazing. So you're running your business and
you're getting this bonus that you can use for
your family as well. Exactly. So great. It's
like a little perk. I love that. I mean, I do
work a lot. Yes, you do. They don't see me as
much or I don't see them as much sometimes. Can
confirm. Yeah. She works a lot. My schedule is
very strict. But yes, so there is, you know,
those benefits as well that, again, when you're
trying to save and plan and do these vacations
and these experiences, it's really nice that
I get to do that on point. Yeah. A little perk
to the job. Yeah. Perk for all your hard work
that you're doing. Yeah. And another part that
I'll add that I'm seeing a lot, especially this
year, because 2025 was our first year. first
full year in our space that we're in. And so
it allowed me to really look at my numbers in
that space and like how we're doing. And these
past few weeks, especially while Jess was gone,
so she might not even know this part is I've
really dove into the financial side of the business
and where every single penny is going. And it
made me think of our conversation where you're
saying your money needs to work for you. And
it's like every single penny or every single
dollar needs a job. And a lot of mine is like,
As soon as the money comes in, I'm like, hey,
I've got to pay all my bills. I've got to get
more inventory. And so now I'm being a little
bit more proactive, a little bit more strategic.
And it's like every single dollar has a job at
any given time. And what is that job? And so
mapping it out really clearly and separating.
And I've just set up kind of like bank accounts.
I call them like buckets where it's, you know,
part of it goes into operating. Part of it goes
into inventory to restock. And then part of it
goes into business debt payoff and paying myself,
which I haven't really done. Yeah. So it really,
as I was going through all my financials, I'm
like, Jess is over there saying like, your money
needs to work for you. Where's every dollar going?
Make it have a job. Make it work for you so it's
doing something for you. Otherwise it's just
like coming in and then it's going out and it's
like, well, what is it doing? It's buying you
more inventory, but like, could it be doing more
for you? Probably. Yes. And timing of that inventory.
So maybe that inventory can wait a few days and
you can put that elsewhere. Right. Yeah. To pay
off like a debt or whatever, finally pay yourself.
Cause I know you've been working so hard at this
and haven't really had the time or the ability
to pay yourself out of it. And now you are. Yeah.
Which is great. Yeah. Yeah. So I've been really
focused on that this, these past few weeks and
maybe in a few months time, I'll update on how
that's going, but it's really like. Yay. Yes.
Doesn't that feel good too? And just like so
organized and. Kind of like you're reaping your
benefit kind of from all this hard work. Yeah.
Like you said, it does feel good because there's
a plan in place and it's very clear. And if I
follow it, then it allows room for the business
to grow and for me to get paid and for our products
to be on the shelves. Yeah, amazing. As opposed
to like kind of feel like you're like on a hamster
wheel. Yeah. Constantly. So it gives a bit of
a pause and time to say, okay, let's actually
get our like ducks in a row. Totally. And yeah,
I love that. And it's like we talked about, yes,
having every dollar have a job. And it's like,
if you think about your life that way, kind of
as a business and all the money that's coming
in, you give it a job for that, for your personal
life too. It can... reap the same benefits for
you as well it's like yes i have this paycheck
comes in it can just have a lump into your bank
account you can just leave it there and just
spend it whenever or you can take it and be like
hey the x is going here x is going towards my
debt x is going towards rent this much is going
to my investments and this much i get to just
spend on myself yeah 100 and those uh that's
not something i generally do in my personal life
like i said my my spending and tracking is more
like Is my debt going down? And am I paying it
off? And am I doing it quick? So I just like,
I track in every month and track it. And I think
similarly, that's how I was doing it in the business.
So I like that you said that it can transfer
over to your personal life. I'm learning it in
the business sense and it's making so much sense
to me that I think it's very transferable to
the personal side. And I've seen it in the budgeting
apps where it's like you have to really get an
understanding of what your expenses are every
month and the ones that fluctuate versus the
ones that are more concrete. Yeah. But it's just
never been for me. But I think now that I'm doing
this, it'll be interesting to see in six months
time if I do. move that over to my personal and
start doing the same strategy. Yeah, totally.
Like once you get a hang of it in the business,
then it'll probably kind of drip over into your
personal life as well. Because if you think about
our personal life, it's like money in, money
out. We have expenses, we have costs, we have
income, just kind of like how a business is too.
Exactly. They're very similar. So yeah, very
cool. Setting up all those buckets so that you
have the money going into a separate account
too. And again... It's challenging with like
a personal because you don't want bank accounts
where there's bank fees on all of the accounts.
But there are different savings accounts where
as long as you're transferring in or out of it
online or on the mobile app, you don't actually
pay for that account. And if you want to avoid
the bank fees completely, you can always do one
of the online banks that we've talked about.
Like, obviously, I've talked about Wealthsimple.
And then there's also like EQ Bank, Tangerine.
These online banks now offer bank accounts with
no fees. and you can have like several bank accounts
with them if you wanted to have like separate
accounts for different things kind of like you
were talking about yeah which is really nice
and then they also um you also earn interest
on your balance as well with the online banks
as well which is really nice yeah that's my yeah
the coho one that i have that my spending money
goes into yeah that one is the same thing. It
has that small. Yeah. It kind of works as like
a high interest savings account as well as a
checkings account. So yeah, a little bit of both
worlds that it's like, yeah, being more strategic
and proactive. So you're doing it with any, any
amount of money that comes in. It could be your
paychecks. It could be like, if you have a child
tax benefit or, um, or a GST payment that, you
know, you get quarterly and making all of them
work to you and having those buckets so that
they all get, so they get divided up into those
accounts and they all get assigned a job. Yeah.
Yeah. They bought their job, they're working.
And then at the end of the month, you just take
a quick look and put them all where they need
to go. And yeah, there's one other thing I want
to say about high interest savings account. We've
talked about high interest savings accounts before.
It's like a regular savings account, but you
earn higher interest on it. So one of the pitfalls
or one thing that people get wrong, I guess I
could say with these is that say I have a high
interest savings account and say the interest
rate is 3%. One common mistake that people make
is they think that that is like what they make
monthly. So say they get their interest paid
out monthly from that as well, which is what
Wealthsimple does. I'm not making 5 % of my money,
or sorry, 3 % on my money every month. That is
a yearly interest rate. So it's 3 % on whatever
money you have in your account for the year.
So you have to calculate 3 % of that, but then
divide it by 12. And that's what your interest
payment will be for the month. Right. So a lot,
I've seen this online, people being like, You
know, oh, you made 3 % of the year. It's like,
I make that a month in my high interest rate.
But it's, you're not actually, it's 3 % for the
year. So you have to divide that up to get your
monthly payment. Okay. Yeah. So if you had $100
in that account, what you would make on that
would be $3, but that's divided by 12. And then
add that to your $100. I'm not going to do the
math on that, but then add that. But then that
interest that you make then starts accumulating
interest as well. Right. With the compounding.
So yeah, that's just one common little pitfall
with interest rates in general. Yeah. I think
that's an interesting one that people probably
don't. I mean, I've seen it here and there, but
I... I don't know like the extent of where it
applies. So it's nice to hear that when, if you
have a high interest savings account that you're
putting money into, that that's how it's calculating
it. Yeah. And you're expecting the right amount
of money getting back into your account, right?
You're not like, what the heck? This doesn't
make sense. Yeah. It's the same with bonds with
their interest rate, which is called a coupon,
but we'll just call it interest rate. It's the
same thing if you're making, you know, like three
or 4 % interest on your bond. that is a yearly
interest rate. So you have to divide it up if
it's getting paid out monthly, which I think
can be misleading because I do see that a lot.
And I'm like, oh, that's like quite good, but
it's helpful to know that it's going to be lower
than what you think, which is okay. It's just,
you need to know that. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And especially when it says it's paid out monthly,
you really have to remember that it's divided
up from the yearly interest rate. Yeah. Yeah.
You get the payment in your account monthly,
but it's divided by the 12 months. Exactly. Jess,
I know we talked a little bit about my business
and my absolute love for shopping and how I turn
it into a business that keeps me busy and it
keeps me kind of being able to shop, but it's
for the store and in a way that works for me
too. I'm not buying it and like keeping it all
for myself, although I do. try a lot of the products
and write it off. Well, you have to. It's part
of the business model. Yeah. It reminds me of
that Schitt's Creek episode where he's like,
you write it off. No, he had it on his credit
card. Yeah. And he's like, okay, well, who's
paying off the credit card? He's like, it's a
credit card. You just pay for it on the credit
card. His dad's like, well, who's paying off
the credit card? He's like, that's not how it
works. Yeah. He's like, it's a business expense.
I think he said you write it off. Oh, maybe that's.
And I think there might be two different scenes.
You just write it off. And he's like, who writes
it off? I don't know. I don't know. They just
write it off. Yes. It's a write off. So yeah,
it is the taxes on it. But yeah, it is nice that
I've been able to do that. And I still get to
shop, but I obviously still do it in a very strategic
way. It's not like. 11 p .m before bed that i'm
ordering fun little things for the store it's
like very strategic and thought out and put together
yeah um but i want to hear a little bit about
because you have an airbnb yeah and so you do
have some of those you know tax benefits as well
so what have you found that has been beneficial
for owning you know your own business as well
yeah there's a lot of stuff so we don't technically
own like a business license for it you don't
need a business license for rental properties
unless you have three or more here in whitehorse
in the uconn i guess um so we just have the one
But there are a lot of expenses that you can
write off against your income, which means you
pay less taxes on your rental income. If anyone
hasn't owned a rental before, any income that
I make from my rental property, I have to pay
taxes on that. It's taxed at my income rate.
a way that you can kind of get around that or
decrease how much tax you pay is is writing off
expenses so things that can be written off for
rental properties is your mortgage interest so
not the amount that you pay onto the principal
but just the interest that you pay on When you
buy a new place, they front load your mortgage
heavy with the interest. So the first few years,
like most of your payments are going to interest.
Yes, I've seen that on my own mortgage. Yes,
100%. So in the first few years, like a lot of
our payments that are going on there is going
to interest. So it's quite a bit of money that
we can write off. The other thing that you can
write off is utilities, home insurance, anything
for maintenance. So anything that you're fixing
around the house, anything we buy for supplies
for the hot tub, that's all written off. Anything
that we buy for like snacks and coffee and stuff
for the guests, that's all written off. Cleaning
supplies. Cleaning supplies. Everything you need
to actually have the Airbnb furnished. Yeah.
I had to buy like an electric saw for the firewood
for the back for the fire pit. Write that off
because it's for the Airbnb. So there's a lot
of stuff that you can write off against the income
that you're making to make your taxable income
amount lower, which means you pay less tax. So
it's kind of like a business too. Like you have
income, you have expenses that you write off
to lower your tax. And you have to keep and track
all of it. Track all of it. Yes. So I have receipts
for everything in my folder. And then when tax
time comes around, which is happening pretty
soon, I go through all of my receipts and I kind
of like categorize them into what's maintenance
and blah, blah, blah. Any furnishings too that
we buy for the house can write off. So there's
a lot of stuff. that can be written off and it
actually gets our income pretty low, whereas
we don't have to pay much on the income tax.
The other thing I do to offset what we pay on
taxes is I also contribute more to my RRSP because
your rental income goes onto your personal income.
So anything that I put into my RRSP then decreases
my personal income as well. So last year, I actually
paid zero income tax on my rental income. Which
is really nice because I lowered it enough with
expenses and then I dumped a bunch into my RRSP.
Luckily, I had a bit of room left in my RRSP,
which brought our taxable income for the rental
down to zero. Wow. That's amazing. Yeah. So there's
lots of little tips and tricks because, you know,
it... it can kind of suck if you get a rental
property and you have a bit of income and then
you're like whoa like you have to make sure you
have enough at tax time to pay any of the taxes
on it yes and if you're not aware about that
kind of stuff or you're not aware about the expenses
that you can write off you can kind of get yourself
into hot water there if you if you're not tracking
it so yeah and i think these you know owning
a business whether it's you know an airbnb like
you or you know a brick and mortar or e -commerce
store like i have there is so many more expenses
that uh I definitely didn't think of when I started,
but my expenses are so, so, so high. And the
goal is always how do I bring those down? But
also making sure that you're capturing everything
so that at tax time you can at least, yeah, use
it against your income. I think we should maybe
do our next episode on taxes. Yeah, we should.
Tax season is here and we can talk a little bit
about things that we claim on our taxes that
people might not know about. Yeah, that's a good
idea. Little tricks there. Okay, that is great.
So we'll wrap up today and we will see you next
week where we talk about taxes. Taxes, so fun.
Everyone's favorite. That's it for this week.
Thanks so much for joining us. Don't forget to
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