1. In general, how optimistic are you about the quality of your life five years from now?
Not at all optimistic: 2%
Only a little optimistic: 8%
Somewhat optimistic: 49%
Extremely optimistic: 42%
2. Looking ahead five years, how do you feel about your own financial prospects?
"In five years I expect to ...
Have achieved most of my financial goals: 28%
Make progress, but not enough yet to meet my financial goals: 66%
Be falling behind in achieving my financial goals: 3%
Have to give up on some of my financial goals: 3%
3. Still looking ahead five years, how do you feel about the U.S. economy's prospects?
Do you expect it to be...?
Soaring at record rates: 8%
Growing but not breaking records: 65%
Starting into a modest decline: 25%
Falling off a cliff: 2%
4. For each of the following, pick what you think will be a better deal in five years.
5 years from now would you rather have ...?
$100,000 in cash: 67%
100 shares of Yahoo! stock (now worth $12 a share): 33%
5 years from now would you rather be paying ...?
What the home mortgage rate was in 1999: 90%
What the home mortgage rate will be in 2004: 10%
5 years from now would you rather be guaranteed ...?
Your salary now plus a 5% raise each year: 59%
Whatever salary the market will bear in 2004: 41%
5. Given what you know about prospects for your occupation and your industry over the next five years, which one of the following statements best reflects your view?
I'm in the right place for a big payoff in the next 5 years: 28%
I'll be fine but I'll never make it big: 55%
I'm okay now, but in 5 years things could be rocky: 11%
Unless I do something soon, I will have a problem: 5%
Careerwise, I am already in deep, um, trouble: 2%
6. Five years from now, when you look back at the business and economic environment of today, will we say ...?
Those were the good old days; wish we could go back: 29%
Those were strange days; now things are back to normal: 22%
Those were revolutionary days, the start of a new economic era: 49%
7. When you think about technological changes in the future -- do you see each of the following more as friend or foe?
| Friend | Foe | |
| Video telephone service | 83% | 17% |
| Shopping mostly by Internet | 66% | 35% |
| Going to school mostly by Internet | 37% | 63% |
| Working mostly by Internet | 63% | 37% |
| Making friends mostly by Internet | 20% | 80% |
| Doing business mostly by Internet | 66% | 34% |
| Computers & Internet access in nearly every room of your home | 70% | 30% |
| Paper books being replaced by electronic books | 30% | 70% |
| Medical advances allowing us to replace damaged body parts | 92% | 8% |
| Genetic engineering to choose a baby's characteristics | 13% | 87% |
| Automated cars that drive themselves on automated highways | 54% | 46% |
| Computers you can talk to | 91% | 9% |
| Internet software that tracks your preferences & purchases | 50% | 50% |
| Drugs and surgeries to help us live longer and longer | 81% | 19% |
| Drugs and surgeries to help us look younger for longer | 63% | 37% |
| Medical techniques allowing women to have babies later in life | 52% | 48% |
8. Thinking about your expectations for your own job in five years, please rate each of the following ...
| Very unlikely | Somewhat unlikely | Somewhat likely | Very likely | |
| I'll be working in the same job, at the same company | 25% | 21% | 29% | 26% |
| I'll be working at a comparable job at a different company | 38% | 28% | 28% | 6% |
| I'll have gone to a new job & company for more money or power | 33% | 22% | 30% | 15% |
| I'll have left my current job for a start-up company | 57% | 24% | 15% | 4% |
| I'll have quit my current job to become a free agent | 58% | 22% | 14% | 6% |
| I'll have changed jobs twice or more in five years | 57% | 23% | 15% | 5% |
| I'll be working for a bigger company | 35% | 25% | 29% | 11% |
| I'll be working for a smaller company | 51% | 30% | 15% | 4% |
| I'll be working harder than I am right now | 18% | 31% | 37% | 14% |
| I'll be working less hard than I am right now | 30% | 36% | 25% | 9% |
| I won't be working at all | 74% | 12% | 8% | 5% |
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
