The more things change, the more they stay the same. That’s the lesson I learned late last month, when I was interrupted with an unexpected phone call as I was working away on finishing this edition of Investment Executive.

The charming voice on the line was none other than a telemarketer; but she was not peddling windows or flooring or a subscription to a daily newspaper. Rather, she was from a well-known lending company, from which I had obtained credit several years ago to buy some furniture. As that loan has long been paid off, she wanted to know if I was interested in taking on more debt.

“No, thanks,” was my response.

“But, sir,” she interjected, “isn’t there anything you’d like to buy? Don’t you want to go on a well-deserved vacation?”

I politely declined, yet again, and wished her a good day. My first thought at that point was: “So much for this new, post-financial crisis world.”

We’ve been hearing for months now about how we’re living in a “new reality,” and that obtaining loans of any sort will no longer be as easy as it was prior to the financial system’s near-collapse last year.

Yet, that phone call, along with several others I’ve received over the course of the past few weeks, asking if I would like a loan of some sort, reveals that this is not the case — not by any stretch.

Instead, in many ways, lenders are still acting with the same reckless abandon that they did prior to the credit crisis.

Although I have a mortgage and a small two-year, interest-free retail loan that I recently took on to buy a new computer, I have no desire to take on any additional debt of any sort.

But that’s not the case for the average Canadian. A Certified General Accountants Association of Canadareport released this past spring reveals that Canadians are relying on credit cards and lines of credit to fund their daily expenditures more than ever before.

In fact, total national household debt reached an all-time high of $1.3 trillion in 2008, more than double the $602 billion of only eight years earlier. The average household debt per capita increased by 66%, to $39,597 from $23,885 in 2000, according to the CGAAC report.

This is all turning into a toxic brew: if lenders continue their predatory ways and Canadians continue to take on more debt, then the recent credit crisis will be a joke in comparison to what we could end up seeing in the long run.

Think about it: if you keep blowing air into a balloon, it will eventually pop. This is no different.

What we need to do now is learn the lessons of the credit crisis and act responsibly — both financial services firms and consumers.

On the one hand, lenders need to stop lending money indiscriminately and stop their insatiable targeting of individuals for whom taking on more debt is neither beneficial nor constructive.

Meanwhile, people need to start acting more responsibly and learn to live within their means. This is where you, as advisors, come in (for more on helping clients with debt, see page 16).

Sure, your job is to help clients invest their money and help them plan for long, fruitful retirements. However, achieving those goals requires you to provide balance when needed and to promote the importance of fiscal responsibility to clients. This means stressing the value of saving and taking on only “good” debt — if any at all.

Pablo Fuchs, Senior Editor