Investors confident in the economy

Confidence is high among U.S. investors at the moment, a new survey by Ameriprise Financial found.

Many who answered, though, have encountered financial setbacks in the past and expect to again in the future. Younger adults are more worried about losing a job, while older ones cited the prospect of a health problem’s related expense as a chief worry.

Ameriprise conducted the survey in December as part of the Minneapolis investment firm’s ongoing effort to dig more deeply into the relationship that people have with their money. It interviewed just more than 3,000 people ages 30 to 79 with at least $100,000 in investments.

Only 7 percent of the group felt “stressed” about their finances, while 78 percent said they had more than enough money to cover essential expenses.

The participants in the Ameriprise survey are better off than the average American, and the results can’t be extrapolated to draw conclusions about the financial confidence of others in the country.

The Census Bureau’s most recent survey of household wealth, completed in 2013, found about 47 percent of the nation’s 124 million households have a net worth of $100,000 or more. In 20 percent of households, someone owns stocks or mutual funds.

The Ameriprise survey found that eight in 10 people encountered obstacles to putting aside that amount of money. The key to get- ting around them, the sur- vey found, was unsurprising: spending less than they made.