Summer is over and now is the time to look forward and evaluate how you will finish the year financially. Going into the holiday season without a plan can be very difficult on your pocketbook. For many people it is time to make the tough decisions that will allow you to look forward to Christmas and the New Year and not dread the credit card bills that usually cause so many people to dread the first of the year. Here are just a few tough decisions that you need to make to allow yourself time to finish the year right:

Take a realistic look at your situation- With just three months left in this calendar year, what have you been able to do to help you reach your financial goals? If you have a plan and you are doing well, commit to finishing strong. If the first nine months haven't gone well, recommit to achieving your goals. Maybe you need to re-evaluate your goals and set some new goals that are attainable over the last quarter of the year.

Get back on track (or start charting a new course)- If you have fallen off of the wagon and haven't been sticking to your budget don't throw up your arms and quit. Turn around and look at where you were this time last year and pat yourself on the back. Forward progress should be congratulated and backward progress needs to be corrected. If you haven't had a success story for a while then let me encourage you to read some success stories of others. You can start by looking here, here and here.

If you have never tried working out a budget or if you have simply gotten lazy, tell yourself that you are tired of living paycheck to paycheck and let's make a plan that will help you be a winner.

Make out your Christmas list- That's right. Christmas is roughly two months away and now is the time to start thinking about how you are going to deal with the decision to buy something for everyone. This is a very difficult thing for many families. The pressure to "keep up with the Joneses" is incredible during the holidays. We are so afraid of hurting someone's feelings that we end up hurting our own families. The Bible tells us in I Timothy 5:8;

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

• Save $1000- This is called the beginner emergency fund. It is designed to catch the small emergencies that will undoubtedly arise as you are working your plan to becoming debt free.

• Pay off all debt except for the house- We will use the debt snowball to get rid of the debt. We will pay off debt by paying minimums on everything except for the smallest debt and throw every penny you can find at that debt

What happens if you are so far behind that you don't have any extra money to throw at the small debt? You have a plan, you are committed to the goal of becoming debt free, but your hole is too big and your shovel is too small? What do you do? Easy! Make some more money! Let's get really creative and find some ways to make some more money. We have already established that personal finance is not difficult. You simply spend less than you make; and if you aren't making enough, get creative.

Have a yard sale, take on a part time job, cut out some things from your budget - do you really need all of those movie channels? For that matter, do you need cable at all? Isn't your family worth a few sacrifices? Our family hasn't had cable for over 15 years. Was it difficult to give up my Sunday NFL games? You better believe it was - at first. We simply decided that we could do a lot more for our family with that money each month. So step 2a in our "get out of debt plan" is making some more money. Once you have gotten rid of a couple of the smaller debts, and you have rolled those payments down to the other debts, you will start making traction. A second job doesn't have to be part of your new lifestyle, but for a few months it may be necessary to get the ball rolling.

Maybe you have taken on the new job, but things still aren't progressing the way you want. Maybe the problem is going to require a bigger sacrifice. Next month we will look at selling some of the big toys that are really fun, but also have big payments.

Recently I have had several people ask questions about the best way to invest money. The answer is there really isn't one single answer. However, before we start considering investment options let's agree on the difference between saving and investing.

Saving- Committing money for less than five (5) years with the intent of gaining financial return

Investing- Committing money for more than five (5) years with the intent of gaining financial return

What is the difference? The difference is the length of time you are committing your money. Anything less than a five (5) year commitment should be considered saving. With only five years, there isn't time to rebound from a loss, so you want to choose avenues that are extremely safe. Your best options here would be CDs and Money Markets. You won't get a great return, but you aren't going to lose money either.

If you have more than five years to leave your money alone, then you can afford to take a little bit more risk. Options that you would want to focus on would be mutual funds. There are a lot of options with regards to mutual funds and the amount of risk you are willing to take will dictate where you might want to put your money. If you are looking to stay on the conservative side of the "risk line", then you will want to look for balanced or bond type mutual funds with a 10-year or longer track record. If you are willing to cross over to the aggressive side of the "risk line" you may want to look at the aggressive growth and international type mutual funds.

The most important thing to know about investing is that you will probably want some professional help. When you start looking for a financial advisor, make sure they have your best interest at heart. They should be willing to take time and explain every question that you have, and you should never buy anything that you don't understand.