Gap between the views of millionaires and the "mass" affluent grows wider. Millionaire sentiment may be on the mend. Spectrem Group's Millionaire Investor Index (SMII) increased by four points last month to register a score of -8, its highest reading since February 2008. The increase, which follows a 3-point drop in June, brings the SMII back into neutral territory after several months of mildly bearish readings.

The SMII, which tracks investment sentiment among financial decision-makers in households with at least $1 million in investable assets, hit an all-time low of -14 in April 2008.

"Millionaires began the second half of the year with a bit more optimism than they showed in June," says Spectrem's president George Walper. "Whether this suggests a broader improvement in the coming months remains unclear."

Stock market conditions

It's unclear in part because Spectrem's Affluent Investor Index (SAII) had a bearish reading of -17 last month, the same result it had in June.

Spectrem's millionaires make up a sub-set of its broader "affluent" universe, not an altogether separate sampling. In other words, the SAII includes the views of millionaire households, but they're mixed in with insights from a larger number of households with between $500,000 and $1 million in investable assets.

In response to an open-ended question about the most serious threat to achieving their household financial goals, Affluent investors cited stock market conditions (27%), the economic environment (21%), retirement (8%), household cash flow (6%), housing and real estate (5%) and household income (2%). The percentage choosing stock market conditions was the same (27%) as in April 2008, the last time this question was asked.

The millionaires surveyed in July shared the same top-three worries as those in the broader affluent segment. stock market conditions (28%), the economic environment (20%) and retirement (10%).

Chicago-based Spectrem, a business consultancy that specializes in the affluent and retirement markets, bases its Affluent and Millionaire indexes on 250, 10-minute telephone interviews conducted each month, with about 100 of the interviews focused on millionaire households. -FWR

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