Yes it's what you make of it but it's undeniably true that for anyone over 50 who has been in a good job, performing well then gets "downsized" will find it very difficult indeed to switch into anything even close in salary and benefits (of course there are always exceptions), let alone retrain where you will of course be on or near the bottom again even assuming you can get hired.
Another factor is that old style "defined benefit" pensions tended to ramp up very sharply in one's 50s so an early "out" can be enormously expensive in terms of lost payout growth. In lump sum equivalent terms that lost payout can easily exceed a million bucks for an averaga professional - and that is nearly impossible to make up, simply not enough time left.
One thing about that article for starters the "typical net worth" figure of about $465k is meaningless. I have no idea where the writer got that figure, and no idea what he means by typical.
I submit that the posters here have missed the main problem of today's American lifestyle. There is so much to buy, and most people have so little resistance. They see their friends with possessions and new cars and big houses, and they feel that they must keep up.
There's a very good book written in the mid-90's entitled "The Millionaire Next Door." It details the lives of hundreds of millionaires interviewed by the authors. The average person interviewed had a net worth of around $3.5 million, yet most of these people had never made more than $80k in any one year.
To make a long story short, they simply lived well below their means, invested their savings, and over time, reaped the benefits. Most of them owned their own small businesses, bought used American cars, had married young, and had not divorced.
There is a formula in the book which can guide you as to whether you live too high. Take your annual income, lets say $50k, multiply that by your age, let's say you are 40. 50,000 X 40 = 2,000,000. Divide that number by ten, and you have your projected net worth, assuming you live within your means and invest your savings in a reasonable fashion. The person in the example above should have a net worth of $200k. Some people detailed in the book have double the net worth predicted by the formula, simply by avoiding the new cars, big houses, plasma TVs, expensive eating out, etc.
You can either have money, or look like you have money. Doing both is very difficult, and requires a very large income. Doing one or the other requires only the median income, resistance to keeping up with the Joneses, and time. The peace of mind gained by living this way outweighs all the houses, toys, cars, and expensive meals you will give up. At least, it has worked that way for me.