With the joy of starting a family, having your first child marks the start of the most significant financial change of your life. That will last for the next twenty years.

A recent study by Centre for Economics and Business Research, found a typical parent can expect to spend £231,843 raising a child born in 2016.

That’s an increase of 65% since 2003. Imagine how that will change over the next 12 years.

The average UK parent will spend more than a third of their take-home pay just to be able to afford one child, with the costs highest between the ages of one and four years old.

In a child’s first year, parents will spend £11,498, rising to £63,224 between one and four.

Being a Mum today will be very different to our mothers and grandmothers.

Being healthier and living for longer than your parents, means your finances will have to support you and your family for longer.

So here’s my advice. Don’t enter this phase of your life without any options. Have the skills, have the mentality, have the financial independence. I’ll help you have them and keep them.

Saving for your future should start today, just as your finances will be stretched like never before. You will also want to protect your home if you are unable to pay your mortgage, and all the things we try not think about.

I know they are the last thing you want to think about when you’re about to take a positive step in your life, but now really can be the best time to think about your financial plan. For you and your new family.