Tracy and max are in debt.

- each of their three credit cards is maxed out to the limit of $8000.

- they owe $12,000 in hospital bills and $2000 for their car loan.

- after borrowing from friends they still owe $100 to one friend and $300 to another.

before they can save for a much-needed vacation, they must pay off their debts.

planning:

Tracy and max come up with a plan for tackling their debt.

step 1: they list all their debts ordered from smallest to largest.

task 1: complete step 1 for Tracy and max. remember that there are three credit cards.

step 2: they make minimum monthly payment on each debt.

- each credit card has a minimum monthly payment of $25

- the hospital expects a payment of $50 per month

- the monthly car payment is $200

- Tracy and max arrange to pay $20 per month for each loan from friends

task 2: what is the total amount of their minimum monthly payments?

step 3: they pay off their three smallest debts first.

task 3: what are their three smallest debts?

Finding a solution:

step 4: Tracy and max decide to eliminate any unnecessary spending until the three smallest debts are paid off. by doing this they can pay off the tow smallest debts in only two months while still making the minimum payments on the other debts.

task 4: what is the total amount of the minimum monthly payments for the tow smallest debts?

step 5: each month Tracy and max take the amount that they would have used to pay the tow smallest debts and apply it toward the third smallest, all while paying the minimum monthly payments on the remaining debts.

task5: how many more months will it take Tracy and max to pay off the third smallest debt if they follow step 5? round your answer to the nearest whole number when you perform division operations.

step 6: after the three smallest debts are paid off Tracy and max take the money that they would have spent per amount to pay those debts and use it on the principal of the remaining debts.to pay the debts more quickly Tracy and max decide to stop using credit cards for new purchase. after a few years of careful budgeting not using credit cards and paying more than the minimum payments on their credit card debt they finally pay off their debts.

Task 6: besides avoiding credit cards for new purchases can you think of other ways that Tracy and max could have budgeted their money and paid off the debt more quickly?