Question

Can someone help me solve for a variable?
You are going to purchase a new car, but being a responsible consumer means doing a little bit of research first.
First, you find the vehicle you are purchasing and its price.
Vehicle: Chevy Volt
Price: $39,145
Current interest rate: 3%
The first part of the question is to create an equation. I did that part, the equation is 39145(1+0.03/12)^12t
This is the next part:
Being a smart financial planner, you want to figure out how many months it will be until your principal is paid down to $10,000.00. Solve for t and show all of your work.
Help?

Answer 1

You'll have to use logs to solve the equation:

39145(1+0.03/12)^12t = 10000

Answer 2

@mlee81 I solved for that and I got t≈−3.847380768381
Could you please help me with the next part?
Lastly, you decide to keep track of your loan four times a month instead of monthly. Solve for the adjusted interest rate.
What exactly is this asking me to do?

Answer 3

You'll have to check that answer, you should get a positive answer for t

Answer 4

Actually, never mind, that does sound right

Answer 5

Yeah I was confused too, but I re read the problem and it says note that t will be negative because the number of months will decrease the principal. I didn't post that part, sorry lol

Answer 6

Sounds like you need to find the monthly payment?

Answer 7

Yes but what does that mean I need to do to the equation? I'm sorry if this is so obvious I suck at math lol

Answer 8

Do they tell you how long you have to pay for the car?

Answer 9

This sounds like it might be an annuity/finance problem.
Otherwise, when I solved 39145(1+0.03/12)^12t = 10000 I got t = -45.5

Answer 10

They say a month and then in that question they want it to change to 4 months.

Answer 11

The adjusted int. rate should be:

(1+0.03/12)^3 I think