People Trust Financial Advice. Most Still Feel Unprepared. The Missing Piece Is Simpler Than You Think.
A new national report found that nearly nine in ten workers trust the financial advisors available to them, yet most still feel unready for the future. The gap is not trust, and it is not knowledge. It is taking the first step, and it shows up in your housing decisions too.
A new national report turned up a finding worth sitting with. Nearly nine in ten workers say they trust the financial advisors their employer makes available. A large majority say they would work with one if given the chance, and they rate a simple one-on-one meeting as the single most helpful thing available to them. And yet most still feel unprepared for the future. Read that carefully, because the lesson buried in it applies to a lot more than retirement accounts. It applies to buying a home, too.
Source: NFP 2026 U.S. Retirement Trend Report, survey of 1,000 U.S. working adults.
89% trust the financial advisors available to them |
84% would work with an advisor if given the chance |
62% say a one-on-one meeting is the most helpful resource of all |
Here is the part that surprises people. The problem is not that workers distrust the advice, and it is not that they do not know it would help. They trust it, they value it, and they say a real conversation is the most useful tool there is. The thing standing in the way is simply taking the first step. Intention is not the same as action, and inertia quietly wins far more often than doubt does. The highest-leverage move most people never make is the easiest one: actually booking the meeting.
Where this collides with your home
The same report found something that lands squarely in my world. Nearly half of workers said housing costs, alongside other bills, are crowding out their ability to save for the future. That is not a small detail. It means your home decision is not separate from your financial plan. It is one of the biggest pieces of it, which is exactly why the two should never be handled in separate rooms.
If your home is central to your financial picture, then the smartest thing you can do is stop treating your retirement plan and your mortgage as unrelated. Line up the two people who handle them, and let them work from the same page.
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Your roleFinancial advisor
Owns the long-term plan: savings, investments, retirement timeline, and how everything fits together over decades. |
My roleMortgage strategist
Owns the home-financing piece, and structures it so a home purchase supports your bigger plan instead of quietly working against it. |
When those two coordinate, a home purchase stops being a wildcard in your financial life and becomes a deliberate part of it. Your advisor makes sure the plan holds. I make sure the financing fits the plan. Nobody is guessing.
To be clear, I am not a financial advisor, and I will not pretend to be one. Your retirement and investment strategy belongs with a qualified financial professional, and if you do not have one, that report is a strong nudge to find one. What I own is the home-financing side, and I am glad to work directly with your advisor so the two fit together cleanly. Good decisions come from the right experts in the right seats.
The clearest takeaway from all that data is almost too simple: the people who feel prepared are the ones who took the first step. Trusting good advice is not enough. Knowing you should act is not enough. At some point you have to book the conversation. If a home is part of your future, let us make sure it strengthens your financial picture rather than straining it, in coordination with your advisor, right here across the East Valley. The step is small. The difference it makes is not.
This article is for general educational purposes and is not financial, tax, investment, or retirement advice, nor a commitment to lend. Survey figures cited reflect third-party data for the period noted. CrossCountry Mortgage and its loan officers do not provide financial planning, investment, or retirement advice; consult a qualified financial professional for those matters. CrossCountry Mortgage is a private lender and is not acting on behalf of, or at the direction of, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Equal Housing Opportunity.
