Crystal Lund has been your trusted employee for 25 years. She handles all cash and performs all accounting duties. Crystal just purchased a new Lexus and a new home in an expensive suburb. As owner of the company, you wonder how she can afford these luxuries because you pay her only $42,000 a year and she has no sources of outside income.

If Ms. Lund lives in an area where the cost of living is low, $42,000 a year over a twenty-five year period could allow her to live frugally, save, invest, and now in her forties be able to cash in some of her investments to buy the house and car of her dreams. At the same time, it would be the course of prudence to bring in an outside auditor.

Use the formula y2-y1/x2-x1

That gives you

5 - (-2) / -1 - 1 = -7/2

-7/2 should be your slope.

(Or it could be -3.5 in decimal form)