Former Tax Accountant Worth ¥1.5 Billion Reveals the Ultimate Strategy for Living Without Working

What is the strongest form of passive income

An investor who has built assets worth hundreds of millions of yen is known as an okubito. Featured this time is Masanori Nagae, who achieved success as a tax accountant and certified public accountant, yet suffered major setbacks multiple times as an investor before ultimately building assets now exceeding 1.5 billion yen. Starting with stocks, he has engaged in a wide range of investments including real estate and crypto assets, living a true ups and downs investor’s life. We ask him about his career so far, his current portfolio—the place he has arrived at—and the investment areas to watch.

[Profile: Masanori Nagae]

Certified Public Accountant, tax accountant, investor. Born in Aichi Prefecture in 1980. After graduating from university, he passed the CPA exam and joined a major auditing firm, where he worked on audits of listed companies and support for IPOs. After transferring to Toyota Motor Corporation, he became independent in 2012. In about three years, he expanded his tax accounting firm to five offices nationwide. As an investor, he began investing in stocks in his 20s and real estate in his 30s, experiencing numerous failures. His cumulative losses amount to about 50 million yen. When his annual investment income exceeded 10 million yen, he sold his tax accounting firm and became a full-time investor. He currently manages total assets of over 1.5 billion yen. His latest book, The Strongest Investing and Tax-Saving Strategies: How a Dual-Wielding Tax Accountant Grows Wealth, is now on sale to great acclaim.

The surprising investment destination he poured his entire first paycheck into

During his student days, Mr. Nagae aspired to become an entrepreneur. Although he was in a science-related field, he thought that becoming a CPA might be useful for starting a business, so he began aiming for the qualification while still in school. Then, in classes at a vocational school, he heard his bookkeeping instructor talk about Warren Buffett. “That’s when I learned that you could live without working through stock investing, and I decided to invest in stocks,” says Mr. Nagae (quoted hereafter).

After entering the workforce, he promptly poured most of his salary from his very first paycheck into stock investments. It was the early 2000s, and the aftereffects of the IT bubble collapse were still lingering. The market he set his sights on was Chinese stocks.

“I also invested in Japanese stocks for shareholder perks, but my main focus was Chinese stocks. I bought shares like those of the steel manufacturer Maanshan Iron & Steel,” he recalls.

Assets halved the Lehman nightmare and a turning point

Riding the Chinese stock boom, his stock assets increased steadily, reaching around 25 million yen by the time he was about 30. At the same time, however, he began to feel that even if stock investing went well, there was a limit to how fast assets could grow. To achieve FIRE (financial independence and early retirement), he would still have to keep working for a long time—it would take quite a while. Then, in 2008, the Lehman Shock hit. As a result, his stock assets at the time were cut roughly in half.

“The loss amounted to almost four times my annual income. I was already feeling the limits of stock investing, so I liquidated my holdings and, using that as capital, decided to go all in on real estate investment, which I had been interested in.”

His first property was a relatively spacious studio apartment in Kinshicho, Tokyo. Starting with that, he went on to purchase a small apartment building in Kanagawa and another apartment building in Saitama—using bank financing as well. All three of these real estate investments were successful, and Mr. Nagae decided to go independent and establish his own tax accounting firm.

From an annual income of 1.5 million yen—turning the tables on a life of poverty

However, this entrepreneurial venture struggled for a while. For nearly three years after starting the business, his annual income was around 1.5 million yen, and his savings didn’t even last a year. He managed by borrowing from banks.

“For lunch, I always chose the cheapest item on the menu at whatever place I went into, and at night I could only buy discounted items during supermarket time sales. That kind of life went on.”

Things gradually began to turn around when he made inheritance tax planning the core of his practice, eventually expanding to open branch offices. During this period, because his main work kept him so busy, he put investing on a temporary hiatus. Shortly after starting his business, he sold one of his properties to raise funds, and then, about five years later, sold off the remaining properties one after another. As a result, he says he earned around 20 million yen in profits from real estate investment.

20 million yen vanished in a cryptocurrency scam

In this way, after weathering the rough waves of life, it seemed as though everything was finally going smoothly—but this was where Mr. Nagae stumbled once again.

“I invested the profits from selling the properties into crypto assets, which were booming at the time. But instead of investing in actual assets like Bitcoin, I put money into what were called ‘ICOs,’ or Initial Coin Offerings. Put simply, I fell for a scam.

On top of that, I also bought so-called altcoins—minor cryptocurrencies—but their prices dropped to one ten-thousandth of their value, so they’re basically worth zero. I got into both through introductions from acquaintances, but in the end, I lost almost 20 million yen.”

The secret to reaching okubito status with total assets of 1.5 billion yen

After this failure, Mr. Nagae resumed investing in stocks and real estate. The losses from crypto investments were mostly limited to the profits he had earned from real estate, and his tax accounting business was performing extremely well, so there were no issues with bank financing and he still had plenty of leeway. After resuming, his real estate investments grew in scale, including purchasing entire newly built apartment buildings, larger than anything he had done before.

“In terms of investment amount, real estate was my main focus. I also started investing in Japanese stocks, but as I began traveling overseas more often, I gradually came to think that foreign stocks would be more promising in the long run. So I increased my holdings in overseas stocks like those in the U.S., India, and Indonesia.”

From there on, his investments progressed smoothly, and he became an “okubito” in his 40s. There were downturns like the COVID shock, but drawing on his previous experience with market crashes, he says, “When prices fell, I didn’t panic and sell—I was able to buy.”

Then, when his annual investment income exceeded 10 million yen, he sold his tax accounting firm and officially became a full-time investor. His current total assets exceed 1.5 billion yen. More than 90% of that is real estate, with the remainder consisting of financial assets such as stocks, investment trusts, and bonds.

While producing results in his main profession, he practiced a wide range of investments, repeating both successes and failures.

So let’s ask Mr. Nagae once again: what kinds of investments does he recommend now?

What are the truly profitable investment strategies that Mr. Nagae arrived at after overcoming countless failures and building 1.5 billion yen in assets? His investment strategies targeting countries in a demographic bonus period, his surprising stock analysis techniques that make full use of ChatGPT, and the true nature of gold, which professionals are recommending right now. The full details of his current portfolio and three specific can’t-miss stocks (real names revealed) are introduced in depth in the paid version of FRIDAY Subscription.

■ You can purchase Mr. Nagae’s latest book, The Strongest Investing and Tax-Saving Strategies: How a Dual-Wielding Tax Accountant Grows Wealth (One Publishing), from this link.