Spectrem Group said Wednesday that its Affluent Investor Index remains in neutral territory for the fourth straight month, falling two points in June to a level of eight.

June’s decline contrasts strongly with May’s performance, Spectrem notes, when the affluent index rose 10 points. The affluent index has been neutral for 10 of the past 12 months, reaching mildly bullish levels only in December 2004 and February 2005. Also, the Spectrem Millionaire Index recorded its ninth-straight mildly bullish reading in June, falling three points to a level of 13.

Affluent investors and millionaires alike cited the economy as their top area of concern when asked about factors that might hinder their ability to achieve household financial goals. In response to an open-ended question about the biggest threat to their financial goals, affluent investors cited the economy (13%), stock market performance (8%), the presidential election and results (7%), inflation (6%) and unemployment (6%). Concern about the economy increased from 10% in March, when this question was last asked, but was identical to the 13% reported in December 2004.

An even higher percentage of millionaires (16%) cited the economy as their greatest concern. Ranking immediately behind the economy for millionaires were stock market performance (10%) and the presidential election and results (10%).

“Affluent investors remained neutral in June, showing a slight erosion in optimism in contrast with May’s strong improvement. Uncertainty about the economy was the biggest single factor in this reversal, weighing on both
affluent investors and millionaires, who tend to take a longer view of investment conditions,” said George Walper Jr., president of Spectrem Group. “Looking back over the past 12 months, it is clear that the post-election bounce the affluent index saw in December 2004 was not enough to sustain higher levels of optimism for long. This group mostly likely needs some external catalyst to break free of neutral ground.”

The Affluent Investor Index is based on 250, 10-minute telephone interviews each month, giving the data a margin of error of plus or minus 6.2 percentage points. Interviews are conducted with the financial decision-makers in households with US$500,000 or more in investible assets. The Millionaire Index is based on a subset of the overall survey group that can vary each month.