90 Percent Of Americans Plan Investment Strategy Changes In Next 6 Months: Survey

(Newsroom America) -- In the next six months, 90 percent of Americans plan to make changes to their savings and investment strategies, according to a survey released by financial-services firm Edward Jones, with the U.S. Presidential Election most often cited as the reason.

The survey of 1,010 respondents, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, examined which ongoing domestic and international issues were most likely to impact investment and savings decisions in the next six months.

The U.S. presidential election and healthcare costs were the two issues most likely to affect savings and investing decisions, with 39 percent and 30 percent of Americans pointing to them, respectively. Another 21 percent of respondents cited ongoing European and global economic issues. Only five percent of savers and investors plan to stay the course in that time period.

"With the U.S. presidential election and global economic issues continuing to make headlines, it's easy for nervous investors to attempt to chase positive returns by making rash changes to their portfolios," said Edward Jones' Investment Strategist Kate Warne. "More than ever, we are focused on reminding our clients and investors that the market and economy are more powerful forces than politics. Despite the political uncertainty surrounding future policy changes, it's important to avoid making unnecessary changes that could mean missing out on the potential for long-term gains."

Age was not a factor in investors' plans to change their investing strategies in the next six months. Across the board, nearly all plan to make a change. The issues that would be most important in their decision to change strategies varied, however.

For Americans between 35 and 44 years old, and those 65 and over, the U.S. presidential election will have the greatest impact on the changes they make to their investment strategies, with 46 percent and 45 percent of those groups indicating so, respectively.

Respondents between 18 and 34, however, were less concerned with the U.S. election and instead pointed to healthcare costs as the factor most important for their investment decisions (35 percent).

As with age, gender played a minor role in respondents' likeliness to change strategies in the next six months, with 91 percent of men and 89 percent of women indicating they plan to make changes.

Men (40 percent) and women (38 percent) were almost equally likely to point to the U.S. presidential election as having the greatest impact on their investment strategies in the next six months.

Women were much more likely to identify healthcare costs as the issue that will affect their decisions (36 percent), while less than one-quarter (24 percent) of men chose the option.

While ongoing European and global economic issues were ranked as the third biggest issue altering investment decisions overall, men and women were divided on their sentiment. Men were much more likely to see it as a significant factor (27 percent) than their female counterparts (15 percent).

The survey was based on 1,010 telephone interviews of U.S. adults conducted between the dates of July 12-15, 2012. The margin of error was +/-3%.