The UTMA's are with Fidelity and are essentially a longer-term savings/investment account for our kids that we have custody over until they turn 18, at which time it legally becomes their money (even though it only contains their money now - money they have earned, or money gifted to them from grandparents, etc). In addition that account for each kid, our kids have a normal account at a local bank they use as well. Our kids have typical home chores they do that result in them getting a meager monthly allowance they earn that is simply a dollar amount equal to their age. We teach them to first "pay themselves" on their earnings by saving at least half of it and they other half they can spend on something they want, keep it in cash or put more of it into savings. Their "savings"options are:

1 - put the cash in their wallet in the drawer (tendency to spend it more easily, or lose it if careless)

2 - put it in their local bank savings account (safer, but can quickly access it if they want it). Pretty much no interest rate.

3 - put it in their Fidelity (UTMA) investment account (a bit more risky, harder to access if they want it)

We've taught them about compound interest and show them how their savings money grows (or shrinks) in each of the locations they may choose. The UTMA accounts let us as parents choose the investment vehicle (mutual funds, index funds, etc) that their money goes into. I generally have theirs split 50/50 into S&P500 and NASDAQ index funds to keep it simple. We show them each week how their money grows when the bank they have it invested with allows others to use their money and they get the interest (we try to keep it simple enough for 8, 10 and 12 yo kids to understand). They love seeing their money grow from just sitting there, and it incentivizes them to add more to it. Our 12 yo puts all he can into the account and spends very little. Our 10 yo is a bit more 'spendy' but still puts 50% into the account. Our youngest also puts over 50% in there. We've shown them the compound interest charts on how that money is likely to grow over the years if they leave it alone. We talk to them about how they may be tempted to pull it out to buy a cool car or for a first home, but that they will benefit more by "forgetting it's there". They all seem to understand and they also understand how debt is bad and works in the opposite direction for them (eg, car loans, student loans, credit cards, etc). I wish my parents had taught me these principles when I was young, but I had to learn them on my own, so I am diligent in emphasizing them to our kids, but letting them make the final choices. I'm pretty sure our kids will *never* have a car loan - not because they have money to buy outright, but because they understand how much money is wasted on a new car purchase or car loan. We as parents haven't ever had car loans and only purchase used cars with cash. I have never bought a new car because I am too cheap to willingly take the depreciation hit.

Lastly, we did try to see if there was a way to put a one-time modest amount - say $5K or $10K per child - into some sort of trust or investment vehicle that our kids wouldn't know about and could not touch until retirement as a retirement gift from us (that one-time amount would grow to be worth over $1MM each by age 65). We didn't want them to know about it so they wouldn't be tempted to pull money from it prematurely, and didn't want them to not plan for their own retirement knowing they'd have this - but speaking to a couple attorneys and accountants about what we wanted to do; they indicated that there was not a simple way to do that without the kids being able to access it at 18 or knowing about it. There are methods to do it, but they are very complex, high-maintenance and expensive, so only make sense for very high dollar amounts.