(MONEY Magazine) – Q. I am about to fulfill the Great American Dream -- buying a house. By January 1990, my savings will reach $15,000. My family's combined income is $61,000, and we owe $12,000 on credit cards and $10,000 on other debts. Should I buy the house or pay off my credit cards and start fresh on the savings? Name withheld by request Silver Spring, Md.

A. If you go ahead with the house, your Great American Dream could easily turn into Nightmare on Elm Street. Just look at the math. Your combined take-home pay is probably about $3,300 a month. Subtract $1,100 for debt repayment -- that's the amount you'll need to wipe out your loans and credit-card balances within two years. Take away another $1,000 a month for payments on a $100,000 mortgage -- roughly the minimum needed to buy a house in your area. That leaves $1,200 a month for food, clothes, property taxes, insurance, utilities and everything else. If that doesn't scare you, consider these horrifying scenarios: your car needs a valve job (eek!), your wife gets pregnant (scream!), you lose your job (meep! meep! meep!). Before Hollywood grabs this plot, pay off your cards and get on a tight budget to raise savings to 10% of your income so that your dream house -- when you do buy it -- will stay dreamy.

Q. Where can I get information about foreclosed farm and ranch land that's for sale? I want to buy agricultural acreage for my retirement. Peter Allen Orange, Calif.

A. Foreclosed land is not dirt cheap. True, the Farm Credit Administration -- the federal agency that regulates Farm Credit Banks -- has reclaimed some properties on which owners failed to meet their payments. But the credit bank holds a public auction only if its bureaucrats think the land is so terrific or so awful that competitive bidding will boost its price. Most of the time, they just list it with local real estate agents who try to sell it at market value. If you're still interested, write or call one of the 11 regional credit banks for a list of properties in inventory, auction schedules and authorized agents. Your nearest is the Western Farm Credit Bank, 3636 American River Dr., Sacramento, Calif. 95813; 916-485-6000.

Q. Soon I'll want to withdraw money from a retirement account invested in a mutual fund. I'd prefer monthly checks, but then the fund could sell my shares anytime -- even when the price was low. Would it be better to take out one amount annually so I can pick when to sell? Dale Rathe Lincoln, Neb.

A. Sure it would, but how will you choose the best time? Human nature being what it is, you will delay making your big withdrawal, reasoning that you will get more if you wait (if the fund is on an upswing) or that it will come back up if you wait (if the return dips). While you are wringing your hands, you will miss out on wonderful things to do with your money -- like traveling, nightclubbing and buying sports cars and jewels. So unless you think your fund is crashing (in which case transfer 100% of your money now), make withdrawals on the same day each month. That way, the highs and lows will average out.

Q. I own more than 77,000 shares of Telemex, the Mexican telephone company. Because it is traded as an American Depositary Receipt, there is little information about the company, and stockbrokers I ask think the whole country is a basket case. How can I find out about this stock? Robert N. Rice Faribault, Minn.

A. You will have the last ja-ja (pronounced ''laugh'' in Spanish) on those soulless gringo brokers. First, you can get information by subscribing to Mexican Business & Investment, a 19-year-old newsletter edited by former Wall Street Journal correspondent Sidney Wise (Felix Cuevas, 301-204 Colonia del Valle, Mexico City 03100 D.F. Mexico; 905-534-9297; $200 annually for 22 issues). Coincidentally, a recent issue focuses on Telemex, which has ''extraordinary growth potential,'' according to Wise. The company is planning a $10 billion to $14 billion expansion over the next five years that will double the number of consumer phone lines to 9 million. Telemex boasts a remarkably low price/earnings ratio of 4.1 and a price/book ratio of 78 cents per dollar. Ole!

Q. Last year we bought 14%, 10-year mortgage bonds in Trump Taj Mahal Funding Inc. through Merrill Lynch. Can you tell us anything about this investment? We were relying on the names Donald Trump and Merrill Lynch. Mr. & Mrs. Henry Banks Port St. Lucie, Fla.

A. Good names do not necessarily guarantee good deals. Your bond is part of a $675 million offering that finances Trump's purchase of an Atlantic City casino from Merv Griffin's Resorts International as well as completion of the unfinished building. Moody's Investors Service gives the bond a low B3 rating because the building is incomplete; the casino is unopened; there is no proof that it will be granted all needed licenses and permits; Atlantic City is highly competitive; and the gaming industry is risky -- so to speak -- by its very nature. Nonetheless, this isn't a complete crapshoot. Two earlier Atlantic City ventures -- Trump Castle and Trump Plaza -- are raking in cash, and the bond buyers who financed them are happy gamblers.

Q. About 10 years ago, I bought two one-ounce silver medals at $24 each that show the Ayatollah Khomeini on one side and two of the American Embassy hostages on the other. I did this out of concern for the hostages. Their families were supposed to receive a percentage of the proceeds. But then there was an outcry that the medal company was exploiting the hostages, and it stopped making the medal. Do these coins have any collectible value because of the small number minted?

Rose-Marie Armstrong Albany, N.Y.

A. No good deed goes unpunished, and yours is no exception. According to several large New York City coin dealers, the medals have no value beyond their weight in silver -- currently about $5.21 each. Although they are in short supply, there is even less demand for medals commemorating an episode that many Americans would like to forget. You could try to sell the medals on your very next trip to Tehran, however, where they would no doubt be priceless status symbols.