I love that you’re doing this for your niece! My husband and I do well for ourselves and don’t have kids, but we have 10 nieces & nephews. We keep a separate brokerage account w/ money for them, so that when they graduate we will be able to give each of them funds for education or entrepreneurial endeavors. All the kids are 12 or under, so we have time to grow it even more. When they graduate we will talk with them about what the money is to be used for, and hopefully be able to give them some seed money to help them get started in life. I also plan on educating them in personal finance so that maybe they won’t repeat the same mistakes their parents made and they won’t have to live a life of struggling due to bad financial decisions. We aren’t planning on telling their parents about the money, and will just give it to each kid directly. I don’t want to offend anyone. A part of me is also afraid that if they knew we had this money set aside for their kids, they would ask for it now to “provide a better life for their kids” . We will just keep quietly putting $$$ away till they graduate.
I think that investing in the next generation is always a great idea! Your niece will have a better chance at being a successful and having a better life because of you. But you should also make sure you are teaching her about perineal finance so that she doesn’t fall into the same habits as her mother.
Keep supporting your family & doing good! I love meeting other like-minded people!