How many trees are needed to make money?

Question

A man went out into his field and wanted to grow fruit trees to profit him over the next 10 years.

He plans to buy trees that will give him fruit by year 4 and produce 60 lbs. of fruit each year after that (Total of 7 years bearing fruit - year 4,5,6,7,8,9,10.)

He know that he has a lot of land and needs to buy enough trees to support his income of $30,000 a year.

If each tree costs him $10 and each lb (pound) of fruit sells for $4, How many trees will he need to plant to break even on his minimum required income of $30,000 every year?

Hidden Tip-

He needs to have made enough $ to break even on the years he didn’t make $ on his fruit trees.

1. How much $ will he make from each tree?
2. What is his profit on each tree?
3. How many trees, using the profit, will he need to plant to accumulate his required salary over 10 years?

Answer 1

The man needs to plant 180 trees because:

Each Tree will PROFIT him $1,670.

60lbs X $4 = $240 every year

$240 (year profit) X 7 (years) = $1,680 tree lifetime revenue

$1,680 (each tree revenue) - $10 (each tree cost) = $1,670 profit

30,000 (min. salary) X 10 years = 300k

$300,000 / $1,670 (tree profit) = 180 trees