Our EFC is over half of our take home. And yes we did save and have a 529. The calculations make no sense for us. We worked with a financial advisor who recommended we spend like 1/3 of our EFC based on our entire portfolio and age to retirement.
We actually intentionally paid off our mortgage the year before my oldest started college so we could cash flow some of it. We live in a 3 bedroom house and I drive a Kia and have no other properties. Yes, our house has gone up in value but we have to live somewhere. I don’t think people should have to deny themselves a middle class lifestyle to afford college. We are upper middle class, live pretty conservatively and pretty much on the edge of full pay everywhere. Taking your kid to Disney a couple times on the cheap during their childhood is not going to touch these numbers. Yes we did do that, but no that wouldn’t make high end privates achievable for us.
If the calculators made sense, they’d use an average of your salary from the birth of your child for starters. I can tell you our EFC would be a lot less.
Agree it’s broken.