You've graduated from college and have wisely started saving for retirement immediately. However, you don't save much and only invest $200 per year in the stock market. Your portfolio earns a 9% annual return, how many years will it take you to accumulate $12,000 in the account?

Suppose you bought a house on January 1 and took out a mortgage for $400,000. The amortized loan requires annual payments for 15 years. For tax purposes you want to figure out how much you will pay in interest in each year of the loan. Assuming the loan's interest rate is 9%, how much will you pay in interest in the 2nd year of the loan.