Wall street

Question

After a bad day on Wall Street , Mr Magnum lost 30% of his money, but he had $3500 left. How much money did he originally have at the beginning of the day?

Answer 1

Let x = original amount of money.  A 30% loss means that he still has 70% of the original amount.

We're told that this remaining amount is $3500, and that must be 0.70x.  To solve for x, divide 3500 by 0.7; the answer is $5,000.