(MONEY Magazine) – Q I'm a 20-year-old college junior. After graduating, I plan to take an entry- level job paying about $22,000 a year and live with my grandmother, so my main expenses will be $500-a-month payments for the $24,000 sports car I want and the cost of a business wardrobe. I would also like to invest -- I already own U.S. Series EE savings bonds -- but don't know how to afford the car, the clothes and the savings. Help me. Sonja Jones Washington, D.C. A I like fast cars and gorgeous clothes as much as the next gal, but they are not the makings of a secure financial future. Don't get me wrong -- I am not saying that you have to drive a 20-year-old jalopy or go around in sackcloth and polyester. But understand that $22,000 a year -- that's about $16,500 after taxes, or $1,370 a month -- does not qualify you to live the life of Nancy Reagan, or even to get a loan on a $24,000 car at most dealerships. Buy a new car if you like. But find one that costs less than $10,000. That way, your monthly payment -- plus insurance, gas and parking -- will stay under $400. Figure you'll need about $350 a month to pay for groceries, phone, hair care, video rentals, and the other essentials of modern life. And hold your clothing purchases to around $250 a month -- though you might splurge for a good winter coat. Finally, take half the amount you would have spent on rent (I estimate your housing outlay would have come to about $500 a month if you had a roommate and lived in one of the capital's unswank neighborhoods) and use that monthly $250 to build an emergency fund equal to 90 days' bills, or about $3,000. Avoid U.S. Savings Bonds, which lock up your money for years. Invest instead in a money-market mutual fund that you can raid for those unanticipated valve jobs. (After you have put aside that $3,000, we can talk about stock mutual funds and other investments.) By my reckoning, you would be left with $120 for indulgences, which should include some generous treats for Grandma, whose free digs will make your life at least marginally affordable.

Q What happens to a bank's stock when the bank fails? I expect that a regional bank in which I own stock will soon be declared insolvent.

Gayle M. Mellin Exeter, N.H. A Alas, if only bank stock were like bank deposits -- that is, insured by the federal government. But it isn't, and so, when the bank goes under, your stock -- whether issued by the bank itself or by its holding company -- usually loses most or all of its value. The best you can do now is to deal with the emotional trauma (I've found that screaming into a pillow does wonders). Then, after the institution actually goes bankrupt, write off the stock as a capital loss. Or, if you can't wait that long, sell the stock for whatever it will fetch and then deduct the difference between that and what you originally paid for it. You may use the loss to offset any capital gain you may have, plus as much as $3,000 of ordinary income. And, if you can't deduct it all on your tax return this year, you can carry the balance forward to future years until it is completely wiped out.

Q The Supreme Court, I hear, has decided that taxpayers may be exempt from paying taxes by their own decision, subject to certain rules and regulations. Is this true? James Calk Forsyth, Mont. A You are no doubt thinking of the court's January decision in the case of John Cheek, an American Airlines pilot who had the you-know-what to avoid filing federal income taxes for six years. Cheek, it seems, had joined a tax protesters' group that preached that U.S. tax laws violated the Constitution and that his wages were not taxable income (in his view, only capital gains were income and thus subject to levy). Not surprisingly, perhaps, the U.S. Attorney saw it differently and charged him with 10 criminal violations of federal law. The Supreme Court ruled, however, that Cheek was not guilty of a criminal offense because he sincerely believed he didn't have to pay taxes. In legal terms, he walked because criminality requires ''willfulness'' or intentional violation of the law (though claiming 60 withholding allowances on a W-4, as Cheek did in 1980, seems pretty willful to me). In any event, Cheek still had to pay back taxes plus interest and penalties of around $60,000, according to his lawyer. So if you are basing a personal tax-saving strategy on Cheek, then my advice (as they say in my New York City neighborhood) is: ''Fuhgeddaboutit.''

Q While cleaning my attic, I found a leatherbound Life of Abraham Lincoln by J.G. Holland, dated 1866. How much is it worth? Joseph Nunziato Ravena, N.Y. A In a better world, your virtuous cleaning would yield you greater rewards than the $25 that antiquarian booksellers say your tome is worth -- assuming it's in top condition. Unfortunately, says Barry Cassidy, owner of Barry Cassidy Rare Books in Sacramento, books are probably the least valuable of all collectibles. Nineteenth-century volumes are fairly common and contemporaneous biographies of Lincoln (even one by J.G. Holland, a noted poet in his day) are not particularly expensive unless they have unusual illustrations, the author's autograph or some other distinguishing feature. For example, a two- volume biography of Lincoln by muckraker Ida Tarbell sold for $935 in 1989 -- but only because it had extra engravings. Otherwise, it might have gone for $30 or so. To sell yours, try taking it to any local rare-books dealer.

Q In 1985 I purchased 195 shares of a unit investment trust called Total Growth Trust Treasuries Series 1. The Bank of New England is trustee, and since it was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in January, I've been concerned about my investment. Bateman Eichler, the brokerage firm that sold me the trust, told me it did not have any information. I called the bank too but got no answers. The last document I saw was a 1989 annual report. Can you help? James Enns Santa Cruz, Calif. A The good news is that your trust is alive and well at Investors Bank & Trust in Boston, which took it over last year. The even better news is that, on May 15, its shares were worth $18.10 -- about twice the price you paid for them. You didn't receive the 1990 annual report because Bateman Eichler's parent company brought in a new mailing service last year, and the service says it never had a record of your trust. But that doesn't explain why the brokerage house couldn't immediately locate your files and straighten things out. Bill Gerdts, the broker who took over your account nearly three years ago, says he's never had time to review records of his ''inherited clients.'' He added that the account -- which has grown to a value of $3,530 -- ''wasn't large enough to merit close attention.'' He then complained that we might be doing a 60 Minutes-style report designed to expose a broker's oversights. More like 60 words, Bill.