Laura retired from her job recently, and she has saved about $396,460.00 over the course of her career. she plans to withdraw $1,700.00 each month to pay for living expenses. after a certain amount of time, the balance in laura's account is $359,060.00. how many months have passed since laura retired?

So she has 396460
she will withdarw 1700 per month, and withdraw is loss or minus or (-)

after x months, she has 359060 left so

total-withdrawn=remaining
withdrawwn=1700 times months so withdrawn=1700x
total-1700x=remaining
total=396460
reaining=359060
subsitute
isolate x then divide is the strategy

396460-1700x=359060
add 1700x to both sides
396460=359060+1700x
subtract 359060 from both sides
37400=1700x
divide both sides by 1700
22=x

she has been retired for 22 months

The hard way to do it is to subtract 1,700 from 396,460 again and again till you get 359,060. Then you see how many times you subtracted 1,700 and you would get the answer.

Another way to do this is to use thus information to make and equation with the information you have. 

Lets make the number of months equal X
you have 396,460 and you subtract (-) for every month (x) you get 1,700 till you have 359,060

so the equation is:
396,460 - 1,700x = 359,060 (simplify it)
-1,700x = -37,400
  x = 22

the answer is 22 months
(easier than subtracting 1,700 from 359,060 22 times)