<p>(first post here, figured I might as well wade into this thread)</p>
<p>rmldad’s reply is spot on - though I think a lot of the issue with middle class parents is that when they went to school, their parents were able to pay for college with little to no planning. It isn’t that way any longer, and I suspect it will take another generation for the shift towards planning early for the college education of one’s offspring to be a normal part of having a child. </p>
<p>Dh’s parents (dad: logger, mom: stay-at-home parent) were able to pay for his state tuition out of pocket. My parents (dad: technical drafter, mom: waitress) didn’t value college and didn’t offer anything for my education so I had to take loans. When dh and I started our family, we limited ourselves to two kids because we knew that paying for college for two was affordable based on our careers (both of us: engineers). We didn’t know how much a state university would be 18 years in the future, but we knew that we’d be paying full freight and able to do it on our combined incomes. We never set up our 529 plan to fully cover the costs, but we’ve always been committed to covering their costs in full (and yes, I know there is a disconnect in there!)</p>