To solve this we are going to use the compound interest formula with periodic deposits:

where

is the final amount after

years

is the initial deposit

is the periodic deposit

is the interest rate in decimal form

is the time in years

is the number of times the interest is compounded per year
She started to save at age 20, and she is going to save until age 40. We can infer that she is going to save for 20 years. Notice that in the first year, she will open her saving account with $250, and she will make another 3 deposits of $250. Therefore, for her first year:

,

,

,

, and

. Lets replace those values in our formula:



Now, for the next 19 years the initial amount in Gabby's account will be $1015.5; therefore,

. We can also infer that

and

. We also know from previous calculations that

, and

. So lets replace those values in our formula one more time:




We can conclude that the future value of her investment when she takes her trip is $23,598.04.