Economy Seen as Biggest Threat to Investors

   With lackluster job growth, a 9.1 percent unemployment rate, and a housing market seemingly far from recovery, it is little wonder then that more than a third (35 percent) of affluent investors we polled say that Economy is the most serious threat to achieving their financial goals at the present time. Of these who are Millionaires, 28 percent say the same.

   From the escalating Congressional debate over whether to raise the debt ceiling to the increasingly crowded field of contenders for the Republican Presidential nomination, the Political Climate (14 percent) is the issue affluent investors consider to be the next most serious threat to achieving their personal financial goals. This is a continued drop-off from September and December 2010 (27 percent and 23 percent, respectively), and last March (22 percent), an indication that affluent investors are keeping a more watchful eye on the Economy.

   Closely linked is the Stock Market, which is the most compelling issue to 13 percent of affluent investors, the highest level since March 2009. Millionaires perceive this to be a slightly greater threat to achieving their household’s financial goals (19 percent), as they do the Political Climate (18 percent).

   Concern over Inflation, which has not garnered a response exceeding 10 percent over the past three years, rose from 5 percent last March, when this question was last asked, to 9 percent. Seven percent of the affluent consider Unemployment to be the most serious threat to achieving their household’s financial goals, a slight increase from last March (5 percent), but still suggesting that these investors feel more secure about their jobs or have the fiscal wherewithal to sustain themselves.