By Talbot Boggs, The Canadian Press

(Special) - Confidence is a key ingredient to success in many areas of life, including finances.

Canadian women are achieving more and more financial and business success today, but many still do not have the same level of confidence as men in their knowledge and ability to make important saving and investing decisions.

More than one quarter of working women in Canada now are the sole or primary income earners in their households, says a poll by Investors Group. Forty-three per cent of working women believe they are more knowledgeable than their partner about personal finance and investing topics, yet men are more likely to take the primary responsibility for personal finance and investing matters (46 per cent compared to 38 per cent of women).

Confidence may be a contributing factor - fewer than half (48 per cent) of women feel confident in their knowledge and ability to make saving and investing decisions compared to 58 per cent of men.

Part of the explanation for that lack of confidence may lie in the fact that many women around the world acquire financial knowledge through informal instruction and from other people.

This was one of the main findings of a study into how women are educated about finances by Barbara Stewart, a Chartered Financial Analyst specializing in counselling and portfolio management.

"Over half of women said that their most valuable financial knowledge was principally acquired through informal instruction and real stories from other people and not from text books, newspapers or financial institutions," says Stewart. "Taking the time to give someone a focused message about money may be enough to change a life for the better. These messages can directly build confidence, which is the fundamental element that will drive a lifetime of rich accomplishments."

Stewart has come up with list of some money-related lessons and practices that are common to successful women around the world.

The first is to determine the lifestyle that you want - where do you want to live, in what kind of house and how much money do you need to live there, and what kind of people do you want to work with? "Figure out what you really want out of life because you become what you think about," Stewart says.

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Confidence key to women's financial success