Question

Heather is saving for retirement and has been doing a lot of research on how much she should put aside each month. The newest article says that 1 36 of her salary should be put into a retirement account. If she makes $63,000 a year, how much will she put into her retirement account each month (rounded to the nearest dollar)?

Answer 1

If Heather puts in 1.36% of her salary into a retirement account and she makes $63,000 in a year, this can be solved by 1.36% x 63000. First convert 1.36% into a decimal. To do this, divide by 100.

1.36/100=0.0136

1.36% x 63000
=0.0136 x 63000
=856.8
Heather would put $856.8 in for the whole year. To find how much per month, divide by 12.

856.8/12=71.4
Rounded to the nearest dollar is $71.

Heather would put $71 into a retirement account each month.

Note: This was solved by multiply the percent and then dividing by 12 months. You could also do this by dividing by 12 months first and then multiplying the percent.