Unrepentant Rich

Being rich comes with a whole variety of inadvertent benefits according to the latest CoreData Investor Sentiment Index.

The latest quarterly has revealed those on a high income with strong investment knowledge and experience, are likely to be happiest with their current investment decisions – the luxury of not risking everything when making an investment decision partly buoys sentiment.

It’s not rocket science but a happy demographic is a rich demographic, with the poor unhappy about their investment decisions, according the findings for the fourth quarter.

The index was boosted by those on a high income with strong investment knowledge and experience, while generally speaking, the less wealthy dragged down the index overall, with 23 per cent of total respondents unhappy or very unhappy about their current investments.

27 per cent of respondents were of a glass is half full disposition with around half of all participants sitting on the neutral fence.

The happiest mortgage borrowers are those with only an investment housing loan, with the unhappiest having only a residential property loan.

Housing borrowers with both loans were more likely to be more unhappy than happy.

On an investment segmented basis, property trusts have brought investors the most dissatisfaction, with sentiment falling for four straight quarters to show a negative sentiment rating for the past twelve months.

The local equities opinion of respondents is the sector will perform worse in the first quarter of 2009 than the last quarter of 2008, inline with constant media attention regarding the deteriorating economic conditions internationally, and to a lesser extent locally.

International equity sentiment continues to plummet, hitting the lowest quarterly level since the inception of the Investor Sentiment Index in 2004.

With weak sentiment in the main investment sectors, respondent forecasting of the Australian economy is particularly grim, falling for four consecutive quarters to a historical low.

The index covered more than 700 respondents during the period 12th to 19th November.