monteleone82 wrote:Alice's take-home pay last year was the same each month, and she saved the same fraction of her take-home pay each month. The total amount of money that she had saved at the end of the year was 3 times the amount of that portion of her monthly take-home pay that she did not save. If all the money that she saved last year was from her take-home pay, what fraction of her take-home pay did she save each month?
a. 1/2
b. 1/3
c. 1/4
d. 1/5
e. 1/6
answer = d
This is a great question for plugging in the answers, which represent the fraction saved each month. And since the question is asking only for a fraction -- in other words, for the
relationship between two values -- we also can plug in for the unknown in the problem (the monthly take-home pay).
Plug in monthly pay = 60. (60 is a good number because it's divisible by all the denominators contained in the answer choices.)
Answer choice C:
1/4 * 60 = 15 saved each month, 45 not saved.
12*15 = 180 total saved for the whole year.
(Total saved)/(monthly not saved) = 180/45 = 4. We need her to save less.
Answer choice D:
1/5 * 60 = 12 saved each month, 48 not saved.
12*12 = 144 total saved for the whole year.
(Total saved)/(monthly not saved) = 144/48 = 3. Success!
The correct answer is D.
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