Question

John wants to buy a pair of shoes with a price of $500. He makes an initial deposit of $25 to his savings account and then plans to save for the shoes in equal payments for X months. After the initial deposit, he saves at a rate of $20 each month. The output represents the total amount John needs to buy the shoes, and X represents the number of months he is saving for the shoes. Explain how you would find out how many months it will take John to save for the shoes for this given situation.

Answer 1

John needs to save for 24 months to afford a $500 pair of shoes after an initial deposit of $25 and saving $20 each month.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how many months it will take John to save for a $500 pair of shoes after making an initial deposit of $25 and saving $20 each month, we need to set up a simple arithmetic equation.

First, we subtract the initial deposit from the total cost of the shoes to find out how much more John needs to save: $500 - $25 = $475.

Next, we divide the remaining amount by the monthly savings rate: $475 ÷ $20 = 23.75. Since John cannot save for a fraction of a month, we round up to the next whole number, which means John will need to save for 24 months to afford the shoes.

Therefore, the total number of months John needs to save is 24 months.