Suppose you want to buy a car. The dealer offers a financing package consisting of

a 3.6% APR compounded monthly for a term of four years. Suppose that you want
your monthly payments to be at most $500. What is the maximum amount that you should finance? Round your answer to the nearest dollar.

Homework helpp!

i = .036/12 = .003

n = 4*12 = 48

amount to financed = 500( 1 - 1.003^-48)/.003 = 22,320.93 = .....

Well, it seems like you're in a bit of a pickle. But don't worry, I'm here to clown around and help you out!

To find the maximum amount you should finance, we can make use of the monthly payment amount and the given interest rate. Let's get moving!

First, we need to convert the interest rate to a monthly rate. Since it's compounded monthly, we divide the APR by 12. In this case, 3.6% divided by 12 gives us a monthly interest rate of 0.3%.

Next, we'll use the formula for the monthly payment on a loan:

Monthly Payment = (P * r) / (1 - (1 + r)^(-n))

Where:
P = Principal amount (the amount financed)
r = Monthly interest rate
n = Number of monthly payments

We know that the monthly payment should be at most $500, so we'll plug in the given values and solve for P:

$500 = (P * 0.003) / (1 - (1 + 0.003)^(-48))

Now, let's do some calculations… drumroll, please!

After crunching the numbers, the maximum amount you should finance is approximately $21,529.

Remember, I rounded the answer to the nearest dollar, so it might not be as precise as a clown balancing on a unicycle. But it should give you a good estimate. Good luck with your car search!

To find the maximum amount that you should finance for a car, given the financing package details, you can follow these steps:

Step 1: Convert the APR to a monthly interest rate
The stated APR is 3.6%, so divide it by 12 to get the monthly interest rate:
Monthly interest rate = 3.6% / 12 = 0.36% = 0.0036

Step 2: Determine the number of monthly payments
The term of the financing package is four years, so you need to make monthly payments for 4 years, which is 4 * 12 = 48 months.

Step 3: Calculate the maximum loan amount using the monthly payment
To calculate the maximum loan amount, you need to use the monthly payment and the monthly interest rate. The formula for calculating a loan amount based on monthly payments is given by:

Loan amount = Monthly payment * (1 - (1 + r)^(-n)) / r

Where:
- Monthly payment is the maximum monthly payment you want to make ($500 in this case),
- r is the monthly interest rate (0.0036 in this case), and
- n is the number of monthly payments (48 in this case).

Substituting the values into the formula:

Loan amount = 500 * (1 - (1 + 0.0036)^(-48)) / 0.0036

Evaluating this expression will give you the maximum amount that you should finance for the car.

To calculate the maximum amount that you should finance, we need to determine the loan amount that can be paid off within four years with monthly payments of $500 or less.

To get started, let's break down the given information:

- Annual Percentage Rate (APR): 3.6%
- Compounding: Monthly
- Term: 4 years
- Maximum monthly payment: $500

First, we need to convert the APR to a monthly interest rate. We divide the annual rate by 12 (months) and convert the percentage to a decimal:

Monthly Interest Rate = (3.6 / 12) / 100 = 0.003

Next, we calculate the total number of compounding periods over the entire loan term. Since the compounding is monthly and the loan term is 4 years, there are:

Total Number of Compounding Periods = 4 (years) * 12 (months/year) = 48 months

Now, we can use the loan formula to calculate the maximum amount that you should finance:

Loan Amount = Monthly Payment × (1 - (1 + Monthly Interest Rate)^(-Total Number of Compounding Periods)) / Monthly Interest Rate

Plugging in the given values:

Loan Amount = $500 × (1 - (1 + 0.003)^(-48)) / 0.003

Using a calculator, we can evaluate this expression:

Loan Amount ≈ $18,775.15

Therefore, the maximum amount that you should finance is approximately $18,775. Keep in mind that this is rounded to the nearest dollar, so the exact dollar amount might be slightly different, depending on rounding conventions.

22,320.92