Conversation 46 - Excerpt

Pamela: …Anyway, the 200 dollars I’m using as CBA’s minimum cash-on-hand, and I want to start investing it in overnights.

Eric: Overnights? Those are short-term deposits, right?

P: Right. You make the deposit at 6 pm and then it matures at 6 am the next morning– it’s a half-day term deposit. It doesn’t earn much interest, of course, but the security and liquidity are 100 percent, and the principal and interest are fully guaranteed. And you make a little money on your money that’s not doing anything at night anyway.

E: “Little” is the operative word there, isn’t it? What do you make on 200 dollars then, Pam?

P: About zero point one oh percent. Twenty cents.

E: Wow! You’ll be rich as Croesus!

P: No– now wait a minute, Eric– listen now. This is just a practicum. Real businesses do this– big corporations do this– and they’ve got maybe three or four million dollars in cash lying around at the end of every workday. Try four million dollars at zero point one percent…

E: …Which gives us, uh…how much then?

P: Four thousand dollars.

E: Four grand?! That’s more like it. Overnights are beginning to sound all right. I wish I had a million to invest.