86% of Millionaires Expect Their Spending to Remain the Same or Increase Despite Recession

A 2008 study by Phoenix Affluent Marketing found that:

• Eighty-six percent of millionaires expected their spending to remain the same or increase for the March-May 2008 time period.

This brings up an important point: why do you see so many conflicting stats on how a recession will affect the wealthy? One study says their spending will dramatically increase, another that it won't.

This depends on how "wealthy" is defined. Many studies define wealthy as "HHI of $100K+." But this group is obviously far more affected by a recession than millionaire households. So word to the wise: examine the definition of wealthy when interpreting statistics about the wealth market.