There's a very old adage that everyone is born a Liberal but dies a Tory. So what happens? Is this some sort of natural change as we get older? Do people get increasingly angry about rip offs? Do we get disillusioned with life and start to see things in black and white?

This week, after a particularly passionate post of the topic of Royal Mail - who I can cheerfully say slowly destroyed any faith I may have had in them over the course of the five months of industrial action - I was accused of being a Thatcherite.

I almost choked on my ciabatta.

However, my reaction to news about public sector pensions made me wonder whether there's some truth in the accusation, because I am enraged at the discovery that I am personally paying an annual bill of £516 to bolster incredibly generous pensions for public sector workers.

Travel insurance is one of life's little annoyances. You know you need it, but having to sit down and sort it out is a bit of a chore. And unfortunately the older you get, the harder it can become to find a policy to suit you without paying extortionate premiums.

It's fair enough that insurance companies charge more to insure older travellers - you are more susceptible to many medical conditions, a lot of which make you a higher risk when travelling abroad, and particularly when you fly.

That said, as people live longer, and older generations stay more active, more over 50s are embarking on foreign adventures all the time. This means that insurance companies are starting to tailor-make policies more suited to the older age bracket. These policies aren't exactly common, but they do exist so it's just a question of knowing where to find them.

We women know that we are far from the weaker sex. Not only can we multitask - often juggling careers and childcare - we also tend to live longer than our male counterparts.

In fact, women are likely to live on average nine years longer than men in retirement.

But these extra years are unlikely to prove enjoyable unless we start thinking ahead and making long-term financial provisions for our later lives.

For most people the idea of saving anything is enough to raise a wry smile. How are we supposed to be able to afford to put anything away when we are struggling with unemployment in the family, or pay freezes, and rising costs?

But however short of cash you are right now, there's a very good chance that at some point in the future you're going to hit an even rougher patch, and if you don't have any cash to fall back on, it could sink you.

There is always a way to cut back just a little on expenses, whether it's walking instead of taking the bus, or drinking tea rather than fizzy drinks. It may seem like penny pinching, but that's the whole point. Pinch less than £1 a day from your budget and after a year you could be sitting on savings of £350 or more.

Once you have the money, there's the whole question of what to do with it, but I was speaking to a bloke from HSBC the other week, and he told me of a great way to make things simple.

A survey has revealed that millions of British grandparents are spending on average £750 each year on their grandchildren, at the expense of their own social life. One fifth of the grandparents surveyed said that their contribution was putting a strain on their own finances.

They are spending money on toys, clothes and treats for the grandkids, but also paying for essentials like school shoes and uniforms. Often though this means that grandparents are being forced into cutting back on themselves; they are not eating out, shopping at budget supermarkets and putting travel plans on hold.

So are they feeling the pressure to contribute from their children?

Do you want the good news or the bad news about your future? OK, the bad news is that millions of people in their fifties and sixties have got themselves in a massive black hole of debt just before retirement, so face an old age in poverty, or leaning heavily on their children.

And the good news? Urm... maybe there will be hover boards...

The figures out today make genuinely alarming reading for anyone approaching retirement and their family.

So how bad are things, and what can we do about it?

Almost a fifth of the Britons planning to retire at some point in 2010 have made no pension provision and will therefore be relying on the State pension and whatever other savings they have, according to new research from Prudential.

But around a third of those giving up work for good this year either do not know how much they can expect from the State, or over-estimate the amount paid per week by £25 or more.

The average retired household needs to find up to an extra £429 a year to cover the annual increase in their cost of living, according to new research.

Retirement specialist MGM Advantage says that, although older people have fewer outgoings than families, for example, many pensioners are suffering due to a lack of cash.

So what should elderly people and their families be doing to cope?

Once we used to have retirement plans that involved cruises and round-the-world trips. Nowadays all we have to look forward to is a couple of decades on the sofa under a blanket, or yet more years of the daily grind.

If you'd rather opt for an active working life than a cold, desperate wait for the grim reaper, then it's pretty good news that the government is planning to make it illegal for your employer to force you out because of your age.

But while it sounds like a blow against age discrimination, it's actually a rather worrying sign.

I spoke to a communications guru this week, whose job it is to generate enthusiasm about a particular part of the money world that he likened to global warming.

He claimed that for most people you can threaten them all you like that bad stuff is going to happen in the future unless they do something about it now, but until they are personally affected by it, they just don't care enough.

So what is this toxic area of our finances, and how can we get over our apathy to prevent disaster?