Sandra saves 12% of her salary for retirement. This year her was $3,000 more than in the previous year, and she saved $4.20. What was her salary in the previous year?

2 Answers
Jul 21, 2018

First, we want to figure out what her salary was this year. We know that $4.20 is 12% of her salary and we can show it with:

12%*x=$4.20, where x represents this year's salary

Solve for x
.12x=$4.20

x=$35, which is her salary for this year, and we just have to subtract the $3,000

With this, we know that you stated the problem incorrectly, but this method of solving can still be used with any similar problem.

Jul 21, 2018

See below

Explanation:

Let's say that was in fact 4.20 dollars, and this year her salary was 3000 dollars more than her last year's salary:

Let x be last year's salary

Let x+3000 be this year's salary:

So:
0.12(x+3000)= 4.20

0.12x+360= 4.20

0.12x= -355.8

x=-2965 dollars

Last year she didn't earn anything and spent 2965 dollars :)