Concerns about the Economic Environment decreased slightly, while Stock Market Conditions continued to rise (14 points, since April  2007).

Every Affluent Household Outlook component fell this month, pulling the overall measure down to its lowest point ever at –8.5. Lower than the –6.9 it reached in April 2008. Strangely enough, the economy was the component that dropped the least, only 2.1. Perhaps the wealthy are becoming inured to the financial media’s general gloom and doom predictions. The largest concern was Household Income, dropping 4.9 points followed by Company Health, falling 4.8 points. Company Health concerns may be a reaction to high unemployment numbers and the budgetary cuts many business are facing.

In today’s world of information abundance, investors have a slew of options available when it comes to investment research. After weeding through the morass of information that is being produced on the economic crisis and Washington’s response, wealthy investors still need to have information about investments and trends in the market.

Whether you’re talking about examining financial statements or sorting through the plethora of analyst opinions, investors are limited only by the amount of time they’d like to devote to research, especially when inundated with reports from the regular press on the crisis. Just as consumers conduct research before purchasing a big ticket item, such as an automobile or a plasma television, investors conduct investment research in order to make informed decisions that will hopefully lead to higher returns.