Question

If you receive a paycheck for $1,459 in the month of June and spend $2,345 in outgoing bills, which integer represents how much you still owe for bills?

Answer 1

The amount you owe can be calculated as the total expenses minus the total earnings. It is the opposite to the amount you got, for example, in a bank account.

In this case, the total expenses are $2345 and the total earnings are $1459. As the expenses are larger than the earnings, we have a positive value for the debt.

Then, we can calculate the total debt as:

`\begin{gathered} \text{Debt}=\text{Expenses}-\text{Earnings} \\ \text{Debt}=2345-1459 \\ \text{Debt}=886 \end{gathered}`

NOTE: it can be also calculated as the negative value of the account balance (earnings minus expenses).

Answer: the amount owed in bills is $886.