$MORE – A GENERATION-BY-GENERATION LOOK AT INVESTING Day 3: Generation X (Born 1965–1980, aged 46–61) Over the past two days I've looked at Generation Z and Millennials, exploring their financial challenges, investing habits and why $MORE might appeal to them. Today it's Generation X. Many people in this generation have spent decades working, raising families, paying mortgages and hopefully building some financial security along the way. But I think Generation X faces a particular challenge when it comes to retirement, and it's something that doesn't always get enough attention. Generation X has, in many ways, fallen between two very different pension eras. Many Baby Boomers benefited from generous final-salary pension schemes, where retirement income was largely determined by salary and years of service. But during Generation X's working lives, many private-sector employers began closing these schemes to new employees, moving towards pensions where the individual carries much more of the investment risk. And here's something worth remembering. Automatic enrolment into workplace pensions didn't even begin in the UK until October 2012, with the rollout taking until 2018. By then, many Generation X workers were already in their thirties, forties or even early fifties. That means some missed years, potentially decades, of the automatic pension contributions that younger generations now benefit from. Of course, many Gen X workers did have good workplace pensions, but others were left having to make their own retirement arrangements much later in their careers. I think this is an important distinction. For a generation now approaching retirement, there isn't necessarily another 30 or 40 years available to make up for lost pension contributions. And that's why I think investments capable of generating income deserve serious consideration. Which brings me to $MORE. For anyone unfamiliar with it, $MORE is a perpetual preferred equity issued by The Smarter Web Company. It currently carries a variable annual dividend rate of 12%, calculated against a £100 reference amount per share, with dividends scheduled weekly. It's the possibility of reinvesting those weekly dividends that I find particularly interesting. Rather than spending the income, you use it to purchase additional shares. Those shares potentially generate further dividends, which can themselves be reinvested. Over time, this creates the potential for compounding. Let's consider two very different situations. SCENARIO 1 – INVESTING £100 A WEEK INTO A STOCKS & SHARES ISA Imagine you're 45 or 50 years old and decide to start putting £100 a week into $MORE through your Stocks & Shares ISA. That's £5,200 a year, well within the current £20,000 annual ISA allowance. You reinvest every dividend and continue contributing £100 each week. Assuming the dividend remains at 12%, the shares can always be purchased at £100 and the dividends are reinvested weekly, here's what the mathematics suggests. AFTER 5 YEARS Total invested: £26,000 Potential portfolio value: £35,571 Potential weekly dividend: £82 AFTER 10 YEARS Total invested: £52,000 Potential portfolio value: £100,340 Potential weekly dividend: £232 AFTER 15 YEARS Total invested: £78,000 Potential portfolio value: £218,275 Potential weekly dividend: £504 AFTER 20 YEARS Total invested: £104,000 Potential portfolio value: £433,019 Potential weekly dividend: £999 Think about that final example. Someone investing £100 a week over 20 years would have contributed £104,000 of their own money. Under these assumptions, reinvested dividends could have helped build a portfolio worth approximately £433,000, potentially generating almost £1,000 every week if they stopped reinvesting. And because the investment would be held within a qualifying Stocks & Shares ISA, that dividend income could be withdrawn free of UK income tax under current rules. For somebody approaching retirement, that's a potentially substantial additional income stream. But let's consider another situation that I suspect many people in Generation X will recognise. SCENARIO 2 – WHAT IF YOU INHERITED £100,000 TODAY? Perhaps you've inherited money from a parent or relative. You've received £100,000 and don't immediately need it for living expenses. What if you invested that money into $MORE and reinvested every dividend until retirement? Using exactly the same assumptions as before, here's how the figures develop. AFTER 5 YEARS Original investment: £100,000 Potential portfolio value: £182,086 Potential weekly dividend: £420 AFTER 10 YEARS Original investment: £100,000 Potential portfolio value: £331,553 Potential weekly dividend: £765 AFTER 15 YEARS Original investment: £100,000 Potential portfolio value: £603,712 Potential weekly dividend: £1,393 AFTER 20 YEARS Original investment: £100,000 Potential portfolio value: £1,099,274 Potential weekly dividend: £2,537 That final number is particularly striking. In this hypothetical scenario, £100,000 invested today could become approximately £1.1 million over 20 years. And if the 12% dividend rate were still being paid at retirement, that portfolio could potentially generate over £131,900 a year in dividends, before any applicable taxes. It's important to understand that these are mathematical projections, not expected or guaranteed returns. They assume two decades of uninterrupted dividends at 12%, a constant £100 share price, immediate reinvestment, no fees and no losses. All of those assumptions could prove unrealistic. There's also an important ISA distinction. You couldn't simply put the entire £100,000 inheritance into your own ISA in one tax year. The current annual allowance is £20,000, so you would need to move money into an ISA over multiple tax years, subject to future allowances. Investing the full £100,000 immediately outside an ISA could result in dividend taxes that materially reduce the figures above. Nevertheless, I think both examples demonstrate why dividend reinvestment deserves attention. And there's another important factor for Generation X: inflation. People approaching retirement need to think about what their money will actually buy in 10 or 20 years. Simply maintaining the same amount of money isn't necessarily enough if everyday living costs continue rising. An income-producing investment that allows dividends to be reinvested could potentially help build a larger portfolio before retirement. Of course, $MORE isn't inflation-linked, and a 12% dividend today doesn't guarantee the same rate in the future. What about the risks? $MORE is an equity investment, not a bank deposit. The dividend rate is variable, payments can be suspended, the share price can decline and the company has redemption rights. Its Bitcoin treasury strategy also introduces financial risks. Concentrating a substantial amount of retirement savings in one issuer would increase those risks considerably. The weekly dividend entitlement is based on the £100 reference amount per share, not necessarily the price paid in the market. But I believe $MORE gives investors something genuinely interesting to research: a preferred equity designed around regular cash distributions, with the potential to reinvest those distributions while building towards retirement. And that brings me back to Generation X. Some people will be able to invest £100 a week. Others might receive an inheritance, sell a property or release capital from a business. The amounts and circumstances will be different, but the question is similar. How could the money available today be put to work to create an income later in life? For those who understand the structure and accept the risks, I think $MORE deserves consideration in that conversation. Particularly for a generation where many didn't benefit from decades of automatic pension saving or the final-salary retirement arrangements enjoyed by some of their predecessors. Because reaching retirement with investments capable of generating regular income could provide something particularly valuable. More financial freedom and more choice over how you spend your time. Tomorrow: Baby Boomers. For many, retirement has already arrived, so I'll be looking at $MORE from a different perspective: generating weekly income from capital already accumulated, without needing to wait another 10 or 20 years. $MORE $SWC #GenerationX #Investing #ISA #Dividends #Retirement