Young landlord with four investment properties considers fleeing Australia: ‘More tax efficient’

Sydney-based AJ Clores is a 28-year-old investor who has a $2 million net worth, including four properties across the country and more than $500,000 in shares. While investments like these weren’t the way Clores expected to make his money, it was “being smart” and cashing in at the right time that led him to build serious wealth before the age of 30.

Clores made his first $200,000 from a video editing business he started himself during lockdown – then he got lucky with timing. When a major dip happened in the stock market, Clores decided to begin investing.

Soon enough he had added property to his portfolio alongside the stocks, but following the changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax (CGT) in the budget, he’s scrapped the idea of buying any more.

“Now that the CGT discount is no longer a thing, I kind of see my portfolio as having taken five steps back,” he told Yahoo Finance.

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Clores is living in his family home in Sydney. Despite still continuing his video editing business, it’s no longer his main source of income – that’s derived from his four properties and half a million dollar share portfolio.

It all began 10 years ago when he graduated from high school with dreams, he said, of becoming a famous YouTuber – “the next Mr Beast”, ideally. 

While the YouTube career didn’t take off as planned, Clores found a way to avoid the 9-5 he was dreading, working for himself by editing videos for other YouTube creators. 

Clores continued this work while studying business management full time at the University of Technology Sydney, but dreaded the idea of working a nine-to-five. 

Upon graduating in 2020, which coincided with the start of the Covid-19 lockdowns, Clores decided to “go all in on the video editing business”. 

“2020 was a really good year because everyone was in lockdown [and] everyone was making videos,” he said. 

With around $200,000 brought in from the business, he took the opportunity of the stock market dip to “invest it all”. 

“I couldn’t really spend my money anywhere else, so I just thought, ‘you know what, let me put it all in stocks’.

“It probably wasn’t the smartest idea, it was a very high risk idea, but I thought, you know, I’ve got nothing else to spend it on,” he said. 

“From there, I ended up more than doubling my money.”  

His stocks were suddenly worth half a million dollars, but Clores “didn’t really know what to do with it”. 

He had been spending time educating himself on investing via YouTube channels and, after some consideration, decided it was time to diversify his investment portfolio into property as well. 

Four properties and ‘five steps back’ 

In late 2022, Clores bought his first property in Townsville, Queensland for $515,000. 

His strategy to find the extra cash for such a purchase, as he put it, is to take “a little bit out” of his stock portfolio once it reaches a certain level and find a new place to invest it instead. 

“I would say that sits around the $500,000 mark,” he said. 

That’s largely come from the iShares Global 100 ETF, but Clores also generally focuses on US companies, as he believes they “tend to offer the higher-growth and more aggressive opportunities that better match my risk tolerance”.

“I know everyone’s portfolio is different, but I can kind of achieve roughly 15-20 per cent return on my investments every single year. 


“Obviously, if there’s a massive dip in the stock market, that’s a different story, but if the stock market is doing its ordinary thing, that percentage is looking at about $75,000 to $100,000 gains.” 

The 28-year-old also currently has around $100,000 in cash waiting on the sidelines.

“I still want to allow my invested money to continue compounding, while also keeping cash available for when a correction eventually happens,” he said.

“If we do see a meaningful pullback, I plan to use some of that cash for shorter-term trades and investments.”

Even with the CGT changes, Clores said he isn’t planning on selling purely because of that.

“However, I may adjust the way I invest going forward.

“I’ll likely be a little less aggressive with long-term investing and potentially place more emphasis on shorter-term opportunities, as I feel I need to find a stronger edge in the market if a greater portion of future gains is going to be affected by CGT.”

The strategy Clores has approached the market with is clearly working for him, as in the last four years since his first property purchase, he’s bought three more: one in Perth for $640,000, in Darwin for $730,000 and his most recent in Melbourne, which was built from scratch and has a loan of $580,000. 

And while these four properties have played a big part in helping him amass his wealth, he doesn’t expect to invest in the property market any further. 

“I still think property will definitely always have its place,” he said, “but from a perspective of having it negatively geared with the capital gains tax, it obviously doesn’t really make any sense. 

“Now that the CGT discount is no longer a thing, I kind of see my portfolio as having taken five steps back in a little bit.” 

Do you have an investment story you want to share? Sophie.venz@yahooinc.com

The changes have “definitely” affected his portfolio and future planning strategy. 

“I have to look at the most tax efficient strategy for me”. 

And a more efficient tax strategy he’s considered is heading overseas where they have very low CGT to build wealth on future investments, as other Australians have also touted online. 

“It’s no disrespect because I do think in Australia if you’re working with an average salary and all that, then the system here is definitely built for you,” Clores said. 

“It definitely helps you a lot, and I think we have one of the best work-life balances out of every country I’ve ever been to.

“But when you start hitting a certain net worth, the benefits start to diminish, and there are other countries that start to benefit you a little bit better,” he said, pointing to the low CGT that countries like Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland and Belgium have on offer. 

“When you start to hit a certain net worth, you just don’t want half of it going to tax.”

Well above the average

Despite Clores’ concerns on what the CGT changes will do to his investment portfolio, his shares value is much higher than other Aussie investors.

According to the ASX Australian Investor Study 2026 released earlier this month, a record 11.5 million Australian adults now hold investments outside traditional superannuation and their primary home.

Of those, the average portfolio is under $100,000 for almost half (42 per cent) of all investors.

While most investors are middle income earners and middle aged, younger people aged between 18-29, like Clores, make up 21 per cent of the total pool.

ASX Managing Director and CEO, Anthony Attia, said this next generation of investors entering the market is “particularly encouraging”.

“Almost one million more Australians are looking to start investing, while the rapid growth of ETFs, with ownership more than doubling since 2020, shows how innovation is opening new opportunities for investors.”

Those aged 18 to 29 account for almost four in 10 of these ‘investors in waiting’.

A key trend among all age groups is to invest in exchange traded funds (ETFs), like Clores does.

An estimated 2.82 million Australians currently hold ETFs, which is more than double the number in 2020.

‘Find the system that works for you’ 

While Clores’ dreams of becoming Mr Beast never came to fruition, he has still found a way to share his story with the masses via his TikTok account.

He has shared that while the way he’s invested in the last decade has helped him become a multi-millionaire, it doesn’t mean others should immediately follow in his footsteps. 

“The reason why I invest like this is because it matches what I want, my goals, how my lifestyle is like and all these different things,” he explained. 

That’s the key to a successful investing or wealth building strategy, he said, finding one that “suits your personal goals and what you want to achieve”. 

Clores has also warned other young investors that there’s “always a narrative” when it comes to some financial influencer’s investment advice.

“There’s a lot of people out there saying ‘invest in this’ or ‘you got to invest in property’, but sometimes these people are a buyer’s agent and they are trying to sell you something for their own gain,” he said. 

“So I always say you [should] find a financial goal and a financial system that matches what you want out of it, and not get misconstrued by people telling you that it’s not what you should invest in. 

“There’s some people that don’t like property, and if you don’t like property, that’s completely fine. There’s some people that don’t like stocks, or they only believe in property. 

“Finding the one that works for you is the most important thing.” 

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