8 You are a CFA (chartered financial analyst). Madonna has come to you because she needs help paying off her credit card bills. She owes the amounts on her credit cards shown in Table 43. Madonna is willing to allocate up to $5,000 per month to pay off these credit cards. All cards must be paid off within 36 months. Madonna’s goal is to minimize the total of all her payments. To solve this problem, you must understand how interest on a loan works. To illustrate, suppose Madonna pays $5,000 on Saks during month 1.

Then her Saks balance at the beginning of month 2 is 20,000 - (5,000 - .005(20,000))

This follows because during month 1 Madonna incurs

.005(20,000) in interest charges on her Saks card. Help Madonna solve her problems!