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Our long national financial nightmare is over (maybe)

Are you optimistic about your finances? Apparently a lot of us are.

A new Gallup poll finds 52% of Americans feel their financial situation is getting better...the most since 2004 and first time a majority said that since before the Great Recession.

Tom Lydon, President of Global Trends Investments, believes that optimism is justified…for some, that is.

“It depends who you are,” he argues. “If you’re young, the Millennials-- according to the study-- they’re euphoric right now. And maybe they should be as the economy improves.”

Gallup notes 70% of those 18-29 years old feel good about their financial future, a 10 percentage point increase from last year.

However, Lydon points out that’s not the case on the other end of the age spectrum. Just one-third of seniors responded positively to the Gallup survey.

“If you’re 65 years old and you’re looking at your savings and you say, gee, I need to have another 25 years put aside and I don’t have it and I don’t have the skills and I don’t have the education and I don’t have the work history-- it’s really tough for older folks out there who have to put two and two together,” he says.

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Yahoo Finance Editor in Chief Andy Serwer adds that along with age, the old real estate cliché’ “location, location, location” is also an important factor when discussing the strength and weakness of the job market.

“You talk about the split between the young and old, the people who have IT skills versus people who used to work in a factory, but labor is also regional,” he explains. “It’s different from state to state.”

Serwer points to a Labor Department report showing 21 states were at or below a 5% unemployment rate in February…an important demarcation line for the Federal Reserve.

“Some of the states are well below what is considered ‘full employment,’” he says. “Nebraska coming in at #1 with 2.7% unemployment. That’s by any definition full employment.”

But on the flip side…

“Nevada is the state with the highest unemployment,” he explains. “And that’s an interesting case because of housing.”

It’s interesting, according to Lydon, because at one time, the Silver State was THE place to be.

“They had such a big boom,” he notes. “People were going there to work, buy second homes. Then when everything fell out, they were just left with that. And because the cost of living there was so low, they can’t go anywhere else with their houses upside down.”

But Lydon believes a comeback is coming there.

“You're gong to see tech companies go to Las Vegas because there’s got to be some growth,” he argues. “Silicon Valley can’t afford to keep those folks anymore!”

And Yahoo Finance’s Jen Rogers says Vegas has a lot going for it.

“They have nice weather, nice tax benefits for companies…and Zappos (AMZN),” she laughs.

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