The average Canadian consumer could be forgiven for equating his or her financial future to the Stanley Cup prospects of the Toronto Maple Leafs: occasionally optimistic but, ultimately, doomed to fall short.

The start of a new National Hockey League season inevitably sparks optimism in every hockey fan’s heart — every team is starting with a clean slate, and there is some chance that it could win it all this year. Much like the Leafs, however, the average consumer will soon realize he or she has too few assets and no reasonable prospect of acquiring more. Moreover, too much of the future has been mortgaged, leaving not enough of a foundation for future victory.

Fortunately for consumers, at least, the situation isn’t hopeless. For one thing, financial success isn’t as binary as it is in professional sports. Only one team can win the Cup each year; everyone else, from second place through 30th, is just another loser. Consumers don’t face the same sort of “winner take all” scenario. They can achieve individual goals and dreams, and their neighbours can, too. So, the hill that the average consumer has to climb is not nearly as daunting as the one facing the Leafs.

In fact, the path to financial success for consumers can be made easier by co-operating with neighbours, such as pooling savings to generate economies of scale in investment management and administration. Most consumers do this to a limited degree by their participation in the Canada Pension Plan — and some do it through workplace pensions or private savings in investment funds. But that is not nearly enough to ensure a reasonable standard of living in retirement for most consumers.

Ultimately, consumers should be saving more and borrowing less. Either they will have to change their ways, or policy-makers must do it for them by expanding the public pension system, facilitating growth in private alternatives — or some combination of both.

As well, decent financial advice should be more readily available. If it’s only cost-effective for full-service brokers to provide advice to high net-worth clients, then policy-makers should be exploring ways of facilitating the provision of more basic advice to lower income consumers.

Ideally, no consumer should have to feel as hopeless about his or her financial future as the average Leaf fan does about his or her prospects for the Cup.