When she landed her first job at 22, Ms. Middlestadt asked her businessman father for financial advice and was soon contributing regularly to a registered retirement savings plan.

Today, the 34-year-old wife and mother handles all investment decisions for herself and her husband. She's not a risk-taker, she says, preferring strategies that offer "slow and steady growth," which the couple's diversified portfolio reflects.

Ms. Middlestadt does the research and discusses options with the family's financial adviser, involving her husband only when she has all the facts. How and when to move forward, though, is always a joint decision.

"A good financial planner will help set [an investment plan] out for you and really listen to your needs as well as your comfort level," says Ms. Middlestadt, who runs a family property-management and land-development business from her Toronto home. "But you have to do some research on your own and take an interest. It's not difficult to learn but it's certainly time-consuming."

Ms. Middlestadt may be on the right track but that's not the case for many other women. More than 45 per cent of Canadian women have no financial investments in their own name, more than half have no RRSP whatsoever, and close to 40 per cent admit they lack the confidence to manage their own investments, according to the female investor poll recently released by TD Wealth Management and Environics Research Group Ltd.

Single, separated, divorced and widowed women are less likely to have a financial plan or own an RRSP than those with a spouse or partner, the study, which polled 900 women, showed.

While the average Canadian woman needs more than $300,000 to meet her retirement needs, according to the study, 80 per cent of women between the ages of 36 and 55 have less than one-third of this amount put away, the study reports. And according to Winnipeg-based Investors Group Inc., only 50 per cent of Canadian women had an RRSP in 2001, down from 58 per cent the previous year.

That's sobering news, given the fact that women today face what Roger Ramchatesingh, customer-segments specialist at Mississauga-based investment firm Edward Jones, calls a "triple whammy" -- a longer average life and lower average income than a man, and a 50-per-cent divorce rate.

"Ninety per cent of women, at some point or another, will be entirely responsible for their own financial future," adds Patricia Lovett-Reid, vice-president at Toronto-based TD Asset Management Inc. "Along the way, nobody is going to care more about your money than you do."

Fortunately, more women are starting to take notice. The TD study indicates that 87 per cent of Canadian women are interested in managing or playing a role in their finances and investments.

Irwin Igra, an investment adviser with IPC Securities Inc. in Toronto, has noticed a sharp increase in the number of female clients looking to him for investment advice in recent years. In fact, among his clientele, more wives are handling financial-planning decisions than their husbands.

Mary Chan, a certified financial planner at Edward Jones, has had a similar experience, with more women coming to her for help in establishing portfolios independent of their partner's.

The goal, they tell her, is to follow their own investment style and maintain control of their finances.

Moreover, she says younger clients, in their 20s, are fearful of making the same financial mistakes as their mothers or grandmothers; her divorced or widowed clients are usually seeking immediate guidance to put their affairs in order.

Experts agree that men and women should have similar financial strategies, reflecting their goals, tolerance for risk and time horizons. As Scotiabank put it in a recent release: invest early, invest regularly, and stay invested. Both sexes should understand their financial goals and build a stable financial plan so they can retire comfortably, the pros say

Yet it's the way they look at money matters that sets men and women apart. David Bach, a New York-based financial adviser and author of Smart Women Finish Rich, contends that women make better investors than men because they ask questions, don't look at investing as a competitive sport, don't panic and invest for the long term.

"Men pretend they know what they're doing but they don't," says Mr. Bach. "We're fundamentally flawed in that regard. It's just a guy thing. We don't like to admit when we don't know something."

Women, he says, tend to trade less than men do and hold on to investments for longer. "Over all, they're just better at commitment. When you apply that to investments, it has huge ramifications."

Ms. Chan agrees. "Women have this thirst for information and knowledge, more so than men," she says. "Once they have it and the broker earns their trust, women clients tend to be pretty good clients. They exercise a lot less trading activity than men. Trading doesn't actually make you money -- buying and holding does."

And, when it comes to investing in stocks, women appear to be winning hands down, too. The National Association of Investors Corp., a non-profit organization of investment clubs and individual investors based in Madison Heights, Mich., reports on its Web site that women's investment-club equity accounts often outperform men's club accounts.

That's because women have a consistent investment philosophy; follow a buy-and-hold strategy; and fully read and analyze stock tips before making buy or sell decisions, says the association's Women Investing Web site.

One group of women that has gained financial confidence is the members of a U.S. investment club called Chicks Laying Nest Eggs. In the spring of 1998, founding Chick Karin Housley, a mother of four and wife of Chicago Black Hawks defenceman Phil Housley, brought together 10 women aged 29 to 60 for a fun and informative way to learn about investing. They began by reading popular investment books and contributing an intial $50 to a shared pot.

Today, the Chicks own 11 stocks, have recently published a book on their adventures called Chicks Laying Nest Eggs: How 10 Skirts Beat the Pants Off Wall Street -- and How You Can, Too!, and run a Web site (http://www.chickslayingnesteggs.com) to help women become "Dow Jones divas."

"The most important thing a woman needs to do is change her attitude towards investing," says Ms. Housley, who recently moved with her family from Calgary to St. Paul, Minn. "Tell yourself you can do it, it can be fun, it doesn't take a lot of time, and it's not that overwhelming."

Adds Ms. Chan: "Don't be afraid to start [planning] even if it's independently, without your husband's blessing. Because you never know when you might be alone."