My 11 year old daughter just got a check for 5k from grandma.
I sat her down, explained to her all about uconverting human capital to financial capital as early in life as possible, and the concept of having those little green soldiers working for you. I then opened up my vanguard account and showed her the stream of dividends hitting the account quarterly and explained that all I do for that is sit on my ass. You could see her eyes light up as she got it.
I'll be opening up an utma account at vanguard tomorrow. She did have concerns about market fluctuations so I promised her that if the value is under 5,000 in 5 years I'll make up the difference. Seems a rather small risk to take to start her on the road to freedom. I'm so proud.