Global Confidence Is Up, but U.S. Investors Don’t Feel It

Interestingly, despite their pessimism for investing overall, only 12% said there was no asset class they felt could provide good returns in 2014. More than 70% said equities would bring the best returns. Americans were especially confident in U.S. equities; 56% of U.S. respondents said they would invest there in 2014. By comparison, 15% said they would invest in emerging market equities and 14% were interested in global equities.

Among all investors, 39% expect the most growth to come out of the Asia Pacific region, including China and Japan. North America came in second.

Increasing global confidence has pushed more investors toward equities, Schroders found, especially those outside investors' home countries. Just 41% of global investors said they think equities in their own countries will yield the highest returns, although 70% have high hopes for equities in general. Americans are the exception; 70% of U.S. investors believe the best performing investments will come from North America.

Although global investors cited retirement saving as a priority for their investing, they tend to have a fairly short time horizon. Just 5% of investors said they look 10 years ahead. More than 60% said they invest on a one- to five-year time horizon.

Among Americans, 67% said they were prioritizing retirement saving, more than any other country. They also had the longest average time horizon at six years. In South Korea, where 62% of the population is making retirement saving a priority; the average time horizon was just 3.4 years.