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Years ago, women depended on their husbands to bring home the money, invest it, take care of it and save it. Times have changed, thank God, and women are controlling their own finances and investments with the money that they make. Women are choosing what to do with their money and how to protect their futures, their families and their careers.

If you are an independent woman (whether you're married or not) and you want to explore your options of how to invest your hard earned money, you'll find some options below.

• Stocks: There are literally thousands of public companies to choose from and it can be a bit overwhelming. When you are first starting out, choose companies that are well known and have been around awhile (at least 10 years.) Watch the stock for at least a couple of months before handing over any real money, and ask for a prospectus, or get one from their website to find out more about their leaders, their products and their earnings.
• Mutual Funds: These are nothing more than several stocks bunched together. It can be a more economical way to buy stocks, and is also considered less risky. The level of growth is usually slower than individual stocks.
• Real Estate: This is a slow and steady way to wealth and can provide you with a passive income for years to come; it does come with some drawbacks though. You will need to come up with a hefty down payment and if you're not careful, you can end up with non-paying tenants who just don’t want to leave. Even though there are risks, this remains one of the more stable ways to invest your money and build your nest egg.
• FOREX: This is not really 'investing' per se; but it can be an excellent way to make money to put into another investing vehicle.

Before choosing any one or a combination of wealth building strategies, take the time to learn about each one. You'll have to consider your own level of risk: can you handle seeing dips and rises in the market, or are you going to have a panic attack every time the market drops? You may want to meet with some professionals and get their opinion on what they think is best.

Buy some books, or conduct some internet research to learn about the different investment strategies that are available and then you can make an informed decision. Have some concrete goals in mind before making any decisions. How much do you want to invest each month? How much do you need for retirement? What age do you want to retire? The answers to these questions will ultimately determine what type of investments you want to engage in. If you only have a few years before retirement, for example, you don't want to choose investments that are considered risky or volatile.

Statistics show that women live longer than men; this means that women need to take control of their finances now in order to protect their future.

George Stanzan believes that one of the best investment strategies is to save, save, save. Recently, he saved money by using an auto insurance quotes provider in the GTA.