It includes four fundamentals: day-to-day banking, borrowing, investments and protection. All are important, but it's the investing component of your financial plan that'll really make it fly.

Here are three great secrets of successful investing:

• Invest Early
• Invest Regularly
• Stay Invested
  
  
  

1. Invest Early

You may just have finished your education, and so are not likely to have a six-figure portfolio to play with, but establishing savings and investing patterns early, can set the stage for significant financial growth later in your life.

For example, an investment of $25 a month (at an 8% rate of return will grow to $4,694 in a decade. Which is great, really. But consider what it will turn into with regular growth over 20 years: a substantial $14,827. Now, leave that investment for another decade for a total of 30 years and you'll have a significant portfolio of $36,704.

Not that it's ever too late to start investing, it never is. Even if you have just a few years before retirement, you can make your savings grow by investing it conservatively and then enjoy the benefits of a nest egg during your retirement years.

2. Invest Regularly

Investing regularly has benefits too. First of all, if your primary form of investment is through RSPs, there are tax savings to be achieved by regular weekly, bi-weekly or monthly contributions. You also benefit from dollar cost averaging by purchasing equities or mutual funds throughout the year. And let's face it, there are few among us who have a handy $5,000 or $10,000 to invest the week before the RSP deadline.

While it's great to put your RSP contributions on "automatic pilot", don't forget to review your overall plan on an annual basis to ensure that you are still on course to meet your goals.

3. Stay Invested

There's really nothing like the power of long-term investing. All the experts will make this point again and again. Listen to the stock market watchers. Those who have been in the business a long time have seen lots of ups and downs, but the statistics are clear - over time the value of stocks increases. Not all stocks, of course, but a well-balanced portfolio of stocks will.

Stock doesn't grow every day - it grows on a minority of days - so in order to be in on those days, you need to be in long-term. The safest, and most profitable way to invest is to keep your money invested as long as possible.

Knowing the most crucial tips to financial success is not the most important thing. First, you need to think about what wonderful goal you'd like to achieve with your money.