Chapter 21

On his screen is displayed his bank balance of a little over 50 million. Now to make the calculations simpler let's use a whole number, 50 million.

According to what he said before, he intends to buy 20,000 heads of cows. A single head of cattle is roughly $1000. This piece of information is from Robins and it is not talking about milk cows but rather the most popular cattle in America, the Angus cattle.

$1000 a head, 20,000 heads means $20 million. Adding on a set of cars, feed, and machines that is another yearly expense of 10 million. A total of 30 million is needed to raise these cows. Comparing with this upkeep cost, the salary given to Robins and people is really just some freebies of a little under $20,000 a year.

Having to spend two thirds of his balance really made Jiang Hai panic, since he still has to pay his taxes. This is roughly another 10 million gone. In America, there is only one group of people that no one ever wants to upset, and that is the IRS (Internal Revenue Service).

If you're short of even a single cent, they will arrest you, then auction off all your assets. This appears to be fair, since they'll subtract however much you are missing from the auctioned off total then return the rest to you. But here is the question, who says they'll give you a fair market price on your assets? Do not tell Jiang Hai that everything in America is fair. He will never believe this, because no one in the political system is ever clean. As such Jiang Hai is completely afraid to owe the IRS money, thus he only has a total of $10 million left in liquid assets.

*zezezeze* Seeing the rough estimate of how much he's got left, Jiang Hai is really hurting inside.

From the original $330 million, there is only $10 million left. Money is really easy to spend, but hard to earn. To be honest, the main reason he is in this dilemma is on Jiang Hai. At that time, he could've chosen anywhere, but he just had to pick here. Now he is paying the consequences. There is really no way out of this situation, so he can only move on. The original plan also needs to change.

The cows definitely need to be raised since he has already hired the needed people. However, the plans for the winery and fishery need to be pushed back. Especially the fishery. Successfully farming fish requires a lot of upkeep. Without spending a couple hundred thousand for proper boats, then don't even think about it. If the fish in the fishery are like cods and herrings then additional octopus, squid and the like are also required be added to their feed. This all costs money.

Thus, as you can see, farming fish cost much more than ranching cows. Towards this, Jiang Hai is pretty helpless. He can only wait until he's got a bit funds before thinking about it again.

'Well, looks like I can only push back the plan to raise fishes till next year.' Thought Jiang Hai as he went to sleep.

The next morning, you can tell Jiang Hai's psychological state just from one look. Although he is living the life of a millionaire but he still need to retain an attitude of a broke person. Unless he can somehow earn some money quickly, then he will have to be like this for a while. He thought for a very long time, but still can't think of any good idea to quickly raise funds.

That cavern has already been scraped clean by him. The remaining glass there is all worthless. By his current abilities of human limits and being able to breathe under water, there is one possible solution. To search for shipwrecks. The cargo of any sunken cargo ship is worth at least couple million dollars. Yet another problem arises from this idea. He does not dare to venture that far out into sea. Even with his body at human limits, it is still worthless in front of those sharks, whales, giant squid and the likes. There is no way they will be afraid of him in the seas.

Especially if his blood somehow leaks into the water, then he really can be considered to be dead meat while out at sea. By the end, there probably will be nothing left of him. This is also the reason why Jiang Hai is afraid to go under water. What can you do? He is just that cowardly. If under no danger to his life, then he will be very fierce. But if you let him go look for shipwrecks, then doesn't dare to.

This being the case, he can only think of ways to cut his spendings. There is not much to say about this. However there is no absolutes in this world. Even if he can't farm fish right now, he can still harvest from the existing stocks in the fishery. After all, when he went to examine the situation of his fishery, it can be described to be very abundant.

Even if he does not cultivate fish, the current stocks are worth at least a couple of million. If these fishes are nourished by his blood then they definitely will be worth more. At least, having a fishing trawler harvesting is of no problem. Thinking through all of this, Jiang Hai is still a bit panicky but at least he is prepared to put a stop on all his bold improvement plans. Let's observe how the situation unfolds. Since no matter what, this piece of property belongs to him, so no matter what, it has to continue operations.

Seeing the looks on Jiang Hai's face, Robins did not say much. He just drove him to the lawyer in Winthrop. There awaited the newly hired cowboys. Cheering himself on, Jiang Hai signed a yearly contract with each of them. When the contracts have been signed, everyone let out a breath of relief.

Currently in America, the whole cultivation industry is moving west non stop. Texas, Montana and the likes are all great ranching areas. Sadly because there isn't living area on the east coast, many farms went broke and turned into residential areas.

Generally speaking, family farms do not need extra hands to help out. Hence it explains the large amount of people who end up relying on welfare. Although the Americans aren't like Chinese people with their tradition of returning back to the land, but they still have feelings for where they grew up. Unless necessary, they generally won't cross states just for a new job. Towards being able to be hired by Jiang Hai, they are pretty happy.

"So boss, when do we start?" Philemon asked as soon as they left the lawyers. Unlike the others, he is quite anxious to get started since his family still depends on the money he earns.

"As soon as possible. You guys can move tonight if you want. We have individual houses for each and every one of you. You just need to bring some daily necessities. If you have a family, they can also move in saving you some rent." Jiang Hai replied.

"That is perfect, boss!" Hearing this, Philemon can't help but be grateful.

In America, the majority of people have no habit of saving their money. They are very much like the Europeans. Spending all that you earn, sometimes even more. Under these conditions, the only way can own a house is to borrow. Sadly the bank won't lend much to these kind of people. The mortgage crisis only passed for a few years ago, hence, if you do not have good credit ratings, then no matter who you are or what company you're representing you won't be able to get a single cent from the bank. As such, it is next to impossible to buy a house for ordinary citizens.

Luckily, the rent in America is dirt cheap. All property owners in America are taxed, on average 2%, annually on all their property values. Generally a house if a house is worth $500,000, then that's an annual expense of $10,000. This does not include all the other expenses the property might incur. Such as management fees, broadband fees, cable fees, security fees, and so on. Thus, most of them will rent out any available vacancies to curb these losses.

In America, police are not made up of volunteers, but hired. Why do rich areas have more police? There are two reasons. One, because rich people live here so of course there is the need for more security. And two, because they pay more taxes. The budget of a police department all comes from taxpayers pockets. On a side note, patrols done by police counts towards overtime. Thus of course they want to protect their income source. While at it, they also earn more, as a result the richer the place, the more the police.

You can tell from just one look that Philemon and the other people are all like this. In this group, only Burke has his own house. Everyone else rents. Now hearing Jiang Hai is saving them money, how can they not be happy?

"Then go get moving, Robins and I will pick up some stuff and then we can have a little welcome party tonight." Seeing everyone's high spirits, Jiang Hai commented. This comment caused everyone to quickly get into their cars and leave.

Although you have to pay annual taxes for cars in most western countries, but it is too low to deter people from owning them. Especially in America. Add on the fact that it is almost mandatory to have a driver's license by the end of high school, thus almost everyone is willing to own a car.

Seeing everyone leave in their own cars, Jiang Hai can't help but want to buy his own car. He also has a driver's license, but sadly, it is not internationally recognised. Hence he can only stare at others with their cars and do nothing about it.

"After ranking up then I'll get a licence. Right, I'm still broke." To change his license to be internationally recognised isn't that hard. He can just use the power of his centurion card and book a date for testing. Sadly that has to wait until next month.

Thinking up to this point, Jiang Hai can't help but feel a bit depressed. He then prepared to go to a supermarket in town with Robins to fill up that empty fridge of his.

"Hey boss! You said you needed some fishermen last night, do you still need them?" Just as Jiang Hai and Robins were about to leave, Philemon asked.

Hearing this, Jiang Hai stopped for a second to think. Originally in his plan, the fishery needs to be in operation. But since he is currently short in cash, thus he plans to slowly develop the fishery. He only needs a fishing trawler to clear some stocks in his fishery. This way he does not require too many hands, but a few are still needed.