1.  You have decided to start saving money now in order to buy a $15000 car.  You have decided to deposit $500 per month into a savings account that earns 5.1% interest compounded monthly.
a)  Fill out the Balance Sheet below for the first 6 months, showing the balance in the account at the end of each month for the first six months.  Round all $ amounts to the nearest cent.
 

month	payment ($)	interest ($)	balance ($)
1	500	0	500
2	500
3	500
4	500
5	500
6	500

b)  Continue this process on separate sheets of paper or using a computer program or calculator (provide print-outs or a list of balance amounts) to find out how many $500 monthly payments you will have to save.

c)  Find the amount of the last payment you will make in order to bring your balance to $15000 exactly.
 

2.  Your roommate has decided that she needs to purchase a car now.  She has decided to find a dealership who will sell her a car for no money down plus payments of $500 per month for 30 months, at an interest rate of 7.5% compounded monthly.
a) Find the sales price of the car she is purchasing, S (this is the amount of her debt).

b)  Fill out the amortization table below for the first six months, showing the outstanding debt after paying each monthly payment.  Round all $ amounts to the nearest cent.  You may want to study the "Spreadsheet Exploration" on p. 142 and the "Graphing Calculator Exploration" found on p. 145 of your text for some help.
 

month	payment ($)	interest ($)	debt reduction ($)	outstanding debt ($)
0	0	0	0	S =
1	500
2	500
3	500
4	500
5	500
6	500

c)  Continue this process on separate sheets of paper or using a computer program or calculator (provide print-outs or a list of outstanding debt) to find the amount of the final payment to payoff the debt completely.

d)  After how many payments will the debt be reduced by half of the original amount?