(MONEY Magazine) – Q I recently won a free trip for two to Hawaii from WOR-AM radio. The station intends to send me a 1099 income-reporting form for $3,500 -- supposedly the value of full coach air fare. But two travel agents said they could book me for less than $750. Why should I get stuck with an inflated tax bill? Maybe I didn't win much. Ted Mazzella Tappan, N.Y.

A Welcome to corporate accounting wizardry. The IRS doesn't care what value is assigned to your trip, as long as it is a fair market value -- a squishy concept that covers everything from a super deal to the price only chumps pay. So the key is to haggle with the prize giver. Lucky for you, MONEY's Barbara Bedway did it -- and now Carolyne Hannan, WOR-AM's promotions director, has promised to issue you a 1099 for the lower fare. She adds: ''We never meant to deceive the winners; we just routinely tell them they have to pay taxes on the tickets.''

Q In 1988, my wife and I invested in VMS Mortgage Investment Fund, a real estate investment trust (REIT), at $10 a unit. Our broker at Prudential-Bache, the underwriter, assured us the fund was safe for retired people like us who don't like risk. But the share value soon started falling. When it passed the $5 mark, Pru-Bache told us we were lucky because our 12% dividend of $1.20 per unit was now worth 24% at that new low price. We sold last year at $4.20 a share -- and thank goodness, because today the stock is at 50 cents. This REIT raised more than $300 million from investors. Is there any way to salvage our losses? Peter Gantz Oceanside, Calif.

A This deal is typical of many 1980s greed-age mutant investments now causing so much misery. Your fund was a blind pool that VMS Realty Partners, a big Chicago developer, used to finance various projects. But when the real estate market slid into the greasy slime, VMS stopped making payments to your fund ! and the fund stopped paying investors. The fund has since declared independence from VMS, and the new management says cheerfully that it will re- evaluate the properties. Well it might, because investors have filed a flock of lawsuits charging VMS or its funds with fraud, misrepresentation and breach of contract, among other deeds -- all of which the firm vigorously denies. Pru-Bache maintains that its responsibility to investors ended after it checked out VMS Realty Partners. In my opinion, however, this fund was the real estate equivalent of junk bonds and therefore ill suited to the safety- minded. And your broker's line about your great dividend (now in theory 240% on a unit price of 50 cents -- if it were still being paid, which it isn't) makes me gnash my teeth in exasperation. The 23 federal suits against VMS are now being combined into one class-action suit; to find out whether you would be eligible for part of any award, write to attorney Marvin Miller at 30 N. LaSalle St., Suite 3630, Chicago, Ill. 60602. And to make sure regulators dig deeper into this debacle, keep churning out letters of complaint to the SEC and to the attorneys general of New York (where the underwriting was done) and Illinois (where VMS is based). Good luck!

Q I am a self-employed 36-year-old who needs an affordable alternative to ordinary health insurance. I've found a Blue Shield policy for $90 a month with a $1,000 deductible, but it doesn't cover checkups or dental care. Any ideas? Steven J. Leon Culver City, Calif.

A Don't knock that $90-a-month policy. The only better deal we found was from the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization (213-667-4102), which provides complete care -- including annual physicals -- for about $105 a month. But as a healthy 36-year-old, you will probably need a physical only once every five years. As for dentistry, the Newport Dental Plan (714-752-8522) functions like an HMO. A $48 annual fee covers checkups, cleanings and X-rays. Charges for fillings range from $25 to $125. That shouldn't be too hard to swallow.

Q For the past three years, my daughter Sheri has gone to a private Massachusetts college that costs about $15,000 a year. She gets some help from me and my ex-husband. The rest comes from a patchwork of grants, loans and jobs. Recently, she called me crying because her $2,000 Massachusetts grant was cut to just $1,300. I don't have enough money to make up the difference. And I don't want her to borrow more or work so hard that her grades slip. What can we do? Dianne Davies Sanford, Maine

A Massachusetts' General State Scholarship Program cut Sheri's grant because her official residence is with her father and the number of people in his household decreased, thus altering her aid formula. But cheer up. There are relatively painless ways to make up the $700 Sheri lost. You can help by taking a loan from the New England Education Loan Marketing Corp. (800-634-9308), which lends parents as much as $20,000 a year per child at the prime rate plus 2% (currently 12%) with 20 years to repay. By then, inflation will have transformed that $700 into lunch money, and your enterprising daughter will be CEO of a major corporation -- and well able to repay your motherly devotion.