Starting a family can be an exciting journey for families, but in the whirlwind of planning, finances can often get overlooked. Brandon Copeland, "Your Money Playbook" author, Athletes.org co-founder, and former NFL player, joins Wealth! to discuss how couples should be thinking about the costs of raising a family.

"First and foremost, you have to audit yourself. You have to get organized yourself. When you go into an airplane, they say, 'Hey, put your oxygen mask on before you try to help anyone else.' You need to make sure that your money is organized and your plan for yourself is in order. And then based on your situation, then it's time to game plan for your child's future," Copeland tells Yahoo Finance.

He believes that it is critical for couples to have conversations about plans for their child, from enrolling them in private school, to paying for their higher education, to even factoring in whether they will chip in for their child's wedding. With these conversations in mind, couples can then build a financial plan that allows them to save for different milestones.

Copeland emphasizes the importance of options for children in the future. "I want to teach them the value of hard work. I want to teach them how to earn everything, and they won't need to touch mommy and daddy's hard-earned money. However, we want to make sure that they have options. We understand right now it costs about $16,000 to $18,000 per year to pay for a child. That's only going to increase over time as education costs and expenses continue to rise," he explains.

Thus, he suggests putting the child's money away into multiple accounts: "We want them to have a traditional high-yield savings account. We want them to have a brokerage account. We want them to have a 529. And I want them to have a Roth IRA. Depending on your situation, you may look at it and say, 'Hey, I can't fund all of these accounts.' And that's completely OK. The thing is, you're creating these categories and these buckets so that as you continue to evolve and grow your own financial journey, you can contribute to these buckets based off of what your goals for your child's relationship with money is."

He concludes, "having these different options will give your child the fast lane paths to financial freedom one day."

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl