The fifties are a little close for me as I am barely through them having reached sixty this year. I have a simple observation: we are the 'Sandwich Generation' .

We are slap bang in the middle of our children in their twenties and thirties trying to establish themselves in life with careers and partners. They need our moral support, a listening ear and often our money too if we have any spare. And sometimes even if we don't!

At the other end of life we have a responsibility for our parents many of whom are engaged in a guerrilla war of trying to maintain their independence in the face of failing health. They need varying amounts of support and sometimes that can have a financial implication too. Our role here is to be supportive without being intrusive – a delicate balance sometimes.

For all of us this is a wakeup call. We realise more than ever before that our lives are finite, time for us will not go on forever. We need a plan, we need to know that our finances make sense and we're going to be alright. This becomes especially poignant if we are watching our parents struggling with limited resources. We can see first-hand that this isn't a good place to be. Or perhaps we were quietly hoping for a decent inheritance top put things right for us and we are watching it disappear into the ever increasing cost of care facilities.

Either way we are awake to the importance of planning our finances, perhaps for the first time. Sometimes things are in such a muddle that we daren't look. As regular readers of this blog will know procrastination and avoidance are brilliant tactics. Until they're not! At some point we have to face the music.

For most of us life's path has had its ups and downs. Redundancies, re-mortgages, debts and divorce may have driven a coach and horses through the best laid plans. We find ourselves still paying a mortgage, possibly carrying some credit card debt and with a pension that is less than adequate. For some of us it's more of a muddle than a mess: pension entitlements stretching back thirty years, bits of money in ISAs and deposit accounts, some shares, a personal pension started and then paid up.

If any of this sounds familiar do not despair. It is possible to create clarity and order around your money. It's simply (notice I didn't use the word 'easy') a matter of sitting down, working out what you've got and where you are and where you want to go. For this you will need help, someone to offer guidance and to be a listening ear as you work out what makes sense to you and begin creating peace of mind around your finances.

The great Holly wood star Bette Davis said, “Old age is not for wimps...”

She was right. So turn and face the dragon. You may be surprised by how effective a long, cool look and a little ingenuity can be.