Question 103327: Enrique puts 12% of his monthly paycheck in an IRA. If he invests $72 in his IRA, how much was his paycheck? Answer by doukungfoo(195) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! We are told that he puts 12% of his paycheck in an IRA.
And we are asked if he invests $72 in his IRA, how much was his paycheck?
So the $72 is 12% of his paycheck.
Ok now all percentage problems contain three elements. Rate, Base, and Amount
The rate is the percent
The base is the whole quantity
a good way to identify the base is to ask yourself "percent of what"
The amount is the part of the whole quantity
Now from these three elements we have three formulas that we can use
to solve percentage problems.
So in our problem are we looking for the base, rate, or amount?
Well we already know the rate, because the rate is the percent and we are given 12%. And we know he invested $72 which is a part of his paycheck so $72 is the amount. So all thats left to find is the base. So we will use this formula:
before we can divide we need to convert 12% to a decimal number
to do this just divide 12 by 100 which equals .12 Answer: Enrique's paycheck was $600
