This may be asking a lot, but you should consider setting aside an hour or two between shopping trips and holiday parties to make some year-end financial moves.

There is a potpourri of things you should consider before the new year. For example, maybe you got married this year and haven't quite found the time to change your W-4 form to increase your allowances so you could get more money in your pay rather than let the government keep it. Same is true if you had a baby or bought a home. So do it now before the year is gone. Adjust your W-4, or Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, if your personal situation has changed in a way that would affect your taxes.

The W-4 has a worksheet to help you figure out how many personal allowances to take. I suggest you use the IRS' online withholding calculator at www.irs.gov.

Although it's not quite time to file your 2005 tax return, there are some things you can do to improve your tax situation before year-end.

Expecting a bonus? If you have had an extraordinarily good year with lots of extra income, you might want to ask your employer to pay any remaining bonus or your year-end bonus in January. Or if you are self-employed and you want to reduce your taxable income for the remaining part of the year, have your clients or customers send your payments after the first of the year. And no, you can't defer being taxed on the money by not depositing the check until January.

Are you older than 70 1/2 and have an IRA? Then check to see if you are required to take a minimum distribution from your retirement account. This doesn't mean you have to withdraw all your money. The required withdrawals are based on your life expectancy. According to IRS rules, you must begin pulling out money from your IRA no later than April 1 of the year following the year you reach age 70 and six months. After that, you have to take yearly distributions by Dec. 31.

But don't miss this deadline. If you do, you get slapped with a 50 percent tax on the money you should have withdrawn.

There's another deadline you should keep in mind. Be sure to submit claims — with receipts — for any pre-tax money you have set aside in a flexible spending account, or FSA, by Dec. 31. These accounts allow you to pay for medical expenses or dependent care (day care, before and after care or summer camp) with pre-tax money.

Participating in an FSA is not an easy thing to do because you have to put away money while also paying for these expenses on an ongoing basis. But it reduces your taxable income, and that is the benefit.

Now, however, you may have a few extra months to procrastinate over your FSA. That's because the IRS does allow employers to give employees a grace period of 2 1/2 months to pull money out of their FSAs. That means you may have until March 15 to apply for money you put in your FSA.

Finally, if you haven't done so already, order copies of all your credit reports from TransUnion, Experian and Equifax before the year ends. Consumers are allowed one free credit report every 12 months. Just go to www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the only Web site that you should use to obtain your free credit reports.