I Inherited 5,000 Years of Family Property

Chapter 23 Are there any investments that are very easy to lose money on?

"What the heck?" Gu Anshan even thought there was something wrong with his ears.

Since ancient times, people have only complained about low interest rates—when has anyone ever complained about interest being too high? Could it be that Zhang Menglong suddenly inherited so much wealth that he became mentally unstable and had a breakdown? Otherwise, how could a normal person not want to make money?

An 8% interest rate a year, that's 7 billion US dollars! Even among the richest people in Huaxia, there wouldn't be anyone who could produce 7 billion in cash, right?

"I mean, can you lower your interest rate a bit?" Zhang Menglong said, "I recall the bank next door, Jiangnan Bank, has lower rates than you? I might as well deposit there!"

Zhang Menglong had a hard time spending a billion in a day, only to wake up the next day and find that he effectively wasted that money. When would he ever be able to spend all of it? If he decided to take a break and relax, his bank account would just grow again in a few days. How could he live like this? When could he start the college that even his parents claimed was magical?

Gu Anshan immediately responded with a wry smile. Banks often compete by offering higher or lower interest rates to attract customers. When did lower interest start drawing customers in? Was this the legendary reverse operation?

"No, no, no! Mr. Zhang, please wait!" At this point, Gu Anshan couldn't care less about whether Zhang Menglong was insane or not; the bank would be only too glad to pay out less in interest!

"How about we offer you an annualized interest rate of 4.25%? You'd be satisfied with that, wouldn't you?"

"What? Still 4.25%? Isn't that still over 4 billion US dollars in interest a year? No, I won't deposit it!"

"Then we'll offer the lowest annual demand deposit rate of 0.24%," Gu Anshan hurriedly said.

When he discussed it with the head of the head office, the rate offered was between 4.25% and 10.75%. He had already offered the lowest rate, and if it went any lower, it would be the regular savings account rate for ordinary customers.

But he just couldn't comprehend what went on in Zhang Menglong's mind. An interest rate of ten points a year would bring in tens of billions of US dollars without doing anything. Wasn't that tempting?

"0.24%?" Upon hearing this figure, Zhang Menglong's expression eased a bit, but that still amounted to over four million Huaxia currency in interest every day, "Can it be even less?"

"You still think it's too much?" Gu Anshan was on the verge of going crazy.

"Can we just not have any interest? Or I can give you interest instead!" Zhang Menglong said, "You see, managing this amount of money for me isn't easy, considering the manpower cost involved every day. If you charged some service fees, I would have absolutely no objections. I'd even give you a bonus at the end of the year!"

Upon hearing this, Gu Anshan was dumbfounded. Having lived for several decades, this was the first time he'd heard of someone wanting to pay the bank service fees for depositing money. What kind of spendthrift was this?

"Mr. Zhang, we really can't go any lower. The 0.24% is already our lowest demand deposit rate. It's the bank's policy. If I cut it down on my own initiative, I would be disciplined!"

"Then I might as well go to..."

"Mr. Zhang, even if you went to another bank, it would be the same," said Gu Anshan with a wry smile.

"Is that so? Well, I won't make it hard for you then." Zhang Menglong said, looking clearly disappointed. It seemed his daily spending plan had to increase by 4 million Huaxia currency to offset this interest.

"Phew!" Gu Anshan finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although he hadn't spoken much to Zhang Menglong, his back was soaked with sweat. Dealing with someone who didn't play by conventional rules was simply fatal at every turn.

"Forget it, it's not my money, why should I bother?" Gu Anshan consoled himself internally. His job was to figure out how to make the most out of these funds for the bank. Everything else was none of his business.

"Right, your bank should have a lot of investment projects, right?" Zhang Menglong suddenly had an idea.

"Of course, Mr. Zhang, are you interested in them?" Gu Anshan's eyes lit up. If the client invested in those projects, the bank's returns would be very high. Normally, employees had to strongly encourage clients to spend money on these purchases. Yet today, this God of Wealth was bringing it up on his own—how could he not be delighted?

He even wondered if those projects could handle such a massive amount of capital. Normally, those projects were in the millions of Huaxia currency, and tens of millions were already considered large projects. Zhang Menglong could potentially fund countless projects by himself.

If these projects were all settled, his bonus as the bank president this year would certainly be astronomical!

Thinking of this, Gu Anshan felt like the air around him was tinged with the scent of money.

He immediately pulled out a thick project brochure.

"This is a financial product recently released by our bank, guaranteed 100% principal protection. The annual return is about 3.8%, you..." Gu Anshan was explaining, but when it came to the investment return, he abruptly stopped.

Zhang Menglong had just rejected an 8% savings interest rate. Could this 3.8% rate catch his eye? The problem wasn't that the return was too low, it was that the man simply didn't want interest, didn't want a return.

"Could it be he's asking me for something like..."

"No, what I'm asking about isn't this kind of investment product," Zhang Menglong added. "I'm wondering if your bank has those kinds of investments that take many years before yielding returns, or those that are very likely to lose money? The higher the risk, the better!"

Is this guy nuts? If Zhang Menglong were an ordinary person, Gu Anshan would've already started cursing by now.

Investment, wealth management—of course it's about guaranteeing a return! The bank's financial products are very stable now, the returns might not be that high, but they almost all guarantee 100% principal protection. If the risk was too great, how could common clients possibly buy them? They might as well buy funds or stocks instead, why buy wealth management products?

Financial products are all about stability; losing money is almost an impossibility.

"Mr. Zhang, we don't have such projects!"

"There could be such projects!"

"We really don't have them!"

"Really none?" Zhang Menglong confirmed again.

"Truly none!"

"How is it so hard to spend some money these days?" Zhang Menglong muttered to himself.

As the president of the bank, Gu Anshan, who had been through thick and thin, was very sensitive to customer needs. He figured out that Zhang Menglong wasn't out of his mind; he simply wanted to spend money purely!

Perhaps, like many nouveau riches, his first thought upon getting rich was to consume.

Clearly, ordinary consumption could no longer satisfy Zhang Menglong. Big gold chains, luxury goods—for him, they were less than the petty cash of one day's interest. What he wanted was the kind of spending ordinary people wouldn't even dare to dream of—perhaps this was the joy of being wealthy.

"Mr. Zhang, although we don't have any investment projects that lose money, if you're looking to spend, we do have some projects that could satisfy you!"

"Oh? Let's hear it?" Zhang Menglong immediately perked up, this was the answer he was looking for.

"You know, because of the global virus, many countries are facing economic recessions, especially those that rely on tourism to support their economies. They're nearly at the point of collapse. Hence, some countries have started to sell off some industries or even their land. Are you interested?"

"Are they expensive?" Zhang Menglong asked tentatively.

"Very expensive," Gu Anshan nodded. "Actually, these are all projects of our bank, but the risk is too high. Even we don't dare to take them lightly, and to recoup this investment would take a very long cycle. If you're interested..."

"Yes, yes, yes, that's exactly what I want!" Zhang Menglong said excitedly. "Let me have a look quickly, I can't suppress the all energies within me any longer!"