Real World: Personal Finance & Budgeting

ACT Math · Axiom Academy

Percentages, ratios, and one-step equations run your paycheck, your shopping cart, and your savings account. Put them in your hands. You bring home 2,400 a month , a favorite jacket just went on sale, and a laptop fund needs to grow — three everyday money problems, one shared toolkit: percent of a number . Drag the savings slider and watch the paycheck split three ways — needs stays locked at half your pay, and every point you send to savings comes straight out of wants . All three slices are just percentages of the same 2,400 , and they always add back up to 100%. Discount, then tax — in that order A 85 jacket goes on sale. Drag the discount and watch two things happen in sequence: the discount comes off the sticker price first, then 8% sales tax is added to that smaller number — never to the original 85 . You drop 600 into a savings account and leave it alone for 2 years . Drag the interest rate and watch simple interest — I = Prt — turn one percentage into real dollars added to your balance. One move, three money problems: turn a percent into part of a number, then track what happens when you apply it. A budget splits one total into percentages that must sum to 100%; a discount + tax applies two percentages back to back, in order, to a shrinking running total; simple interest ( I=Prt ) turns a rate into dollars over time. Whenever the ACT gives you a percent and a starting amount, that's the one relationship doing the work.

This is the written version of the interactive lesson above. See the full ACT Math course.