Some millionaires do not feel wealthy: Fidelity survey

Washington, Mar.15 (ANI): Four out of ten respondents in a survey conducted by Fidelity Institutional Wealth have said that they do not feel wealthy, even though they reported an average of 3.5 million dollars in investable assets.

Around 58 percent of responders who do feel wealthy said they began to feel so at 1.75 million dollars in investable assets.

Gail Graham, an executive vice president in Fidelity Institutional Wealth, noted the responders' definitions of wealth are based "where you are in your life cycle compared to retirement, and what you believe your spending patterns will be in retirement."

According to the survey, three quarters of millionaires feel financially secure and 81 percent of participants said they are careful about their spending.

The most pressing financial concerns shared by 43 percent of millionaires is being able to support their lifestyles in retirement.

The results indicated that America's richest were unshaken by the market's downturn, and are not concerned about current market volatility.

Forty-three percent of those surveyed say they plan to invest more in the stock market over the next 12 months. One third of all millionaires say they made back all of the money they lost in the market from the fall of 2008 through the first half of 2009.

Graham said the attitudes of millionaires are both a "leading indicator and a causal factor" of the direction of the economy and also said the millionaires "have the power to make what they believe happen."

Their responses "help us understand the present situation, and their outlook, we believe, does affect the reality that comes," The ABC News quoted Graham, as saying.

The average millionaire who participated in the survey is 56 years old male, and has 3.5 million dollars in investable assets with an annual household income of 379 thousand dollars.

People surveyed represent only five percent of U.S. households. Sixty percent of respondents were male and 40 percent were female.

The survey also revealed that 64 percent of the respondents are either "extremely or very concerned" about the impact of potential tax changes on their investments. (ANI)