Jim wishes to buy 3 gifts that cost 15 dollars, 9 dollars, and 12 dollars. he has 1/4 of the money he needs, how much more money must he earn in order to buy the gifts

In order to solve this, you have to plug in all of the costs of the gifts and add them, which in all equals $36. since jim only has 1/4 of the money he needs to buy the gifts, you need to divide 36 by 4. this gives you 9, so now you know he has 9 dollars.
and to find out how much more money he needs, you can subtract 9 from 36 which represents a fourth of the required money. the answer is 27, that's how much jim needs in order to buy his gifts.