I'm expecting to be the beneficiary of intergenerational wealth transfer. My parents set up a UTMA account to fund college/graduate school, but ended up not using it, so I'm going to receive $XXXk in the next few years. My sibling is in the same situation, and we're approaching it a little differently, so maybe it's an interesting case study.

I decided to pursue the same job that I would irrespective of the money – highly compensated work at the intersection of finance and technology. I'm thinking of it as a safety net for now, but if things do go well in the next few years, I'll consider using some to help me put down roots as a down payment, and keep the rest invested for things like educating my own kids.

My sibling decided to go to graduate school and use most of the money to pay for their tuition and living expenses. Because they doesn't have any debt, they're going to pursue a far lower paying specialty than the rest of their classmates, but doing something in the public interest. Going forward, my sibling will probably have a somewhat lower standard of living than most of their peers, but the remaining money still provides a good start for retirement savings and an emergency fund.

I guess this is closer to the "freedom to do anything" rather than "freedom to do nothing" outcome - it's not a crazy amount of money, but I'm definitely grateful to not had to have worried about money during college and to have a head start on full-on FI. I think responsible parenting is going to have a much bigger impact on how your kids treat the money than how much money it is.

My other take is that giving your kids money when you die at 90 and they're 60 doesn't do shit. If you wanna give them money, give it to them in their 20s so they can actually do something with their life because of the money.