You can have one of the best home based businesses around and still find yourself scraping by on your old age pension cheque after you retire if you don't put any thought into your investments while you're still young. If you're only just getting into investing and setting yourself up for retirement, then you might appreciate this overview into some of the types of investment options that are available out there. Talk to your financial advisor and see which one would be best for you.

Plans/Funds

One of the easiest and most popular ways to invest money is to buy into a plan or fund that includes a little bit of everything. Some of your money might go to a bank and get parceled out in the form of a construction mortgage for a real estate developer while another part is given to a computer chip company who will use it to launch their new product line. Each one pays you dividends and with your money so spread out, it's a lot more difficult for a few companies going under to take out your entire investment portfolio.

Stocks

If you feel like you have a firm grasp on how the stock market works, you might like to take some of the money you make from being a lawyer in Toronto and buy some stocks with it. Stocks represent part ownership in a company and entitle you to a portion of their profits (according to how much stock you own). You can use your money to buy into a single company and collect your dividends or spread it around many. Some people even engage in stock trading, where they attempt to make money by selling stocks when they're worth more and buying when they're worth less.

Bonds

Bonds are safer but less fluid than stocks. When you buy a bond, you are giving the organization selling the bond control of your money for a set period of time. At the end of the period, they must pay it back with the agreed upon amount of interest. Governments often sell bonds to finance the building of new Mississauga real estate, prosecute a war, or just help their economy. If you sell them before they're due you won't get as much back.

Venture Capital

If you're willing to risk big in order to win big, you might want to try venture capitalism. As a venture capitalist, you'll invest your money into new Canadian franchises or businesses that are starting up in exchange for an agreed upon amount of interest in the company. If the company goes under you lose everything, but if they make it big so do you, so the trick lies in predicting which companies will find success.