“Overall, [the] outlook has dropped somewhat compared to a year ago,” Walper said. “Wealthy investors are starting to lose confidence in the overall economy.”

Affluent investors’ views on household income were modestly better month over month and year over year, according to Spectrem, while their views on their household assets and strength of their employers also declined across both periods.

The survey was also broken down by respondents’ political affiliation. Republicans tended to have a more negative outlook than Democrats, and independents generally reported views closer to those of Republicans. Democrats’ overall household outlook registered approximately 32 points on Spectrem’s scale, while Republicans reported an average outlook below 9 and independent voters just under 15.

“There’s a clear difference of opinion determined by party affiliation,” Walper said. “Overall, Republicans aren’t as optimistic as Democrats.”

Party members are most evenly split on the economy, according to Spectrem. On the scale of optimism, Democrats scored 30, while Republicans scored a negative 25. Independents scored zero (in other words, they were entirely neutral).

The products preferred by affluent investors depended on their political affiliation. While Republicans and independents were more likely than Democrats to prefer investing in stocks and stock mutual funds, Democrats were most likely to prefer not investing at all or to keep investments in cash, according to Spectrem.

The firm also said wealthy Americans’ investment plans were most likely to be impacted by stock market conditions; 32 percent of both affluent and millionaire investors named the market as the most significant impact on their decisions, followed by their retirement plans, household income and the economic environment.

The current political climate lagged as a factor for affluent and millionaire investors, named by 6 percent and 4 percent of the respondents, respectively.

“While there are differences of opinions by party when it comes to outlook, overall investor confidence is driven by what the market does,” Walper said. “Given the way folks feel about the economy right now, it’s hard to believe that confidence is going to stay at the same levels over the next few months.”

Spectrem periodically surveys between 25,000 and 30,000 wealthy American households to compose its confidence indices and outlook studies.