A million dollars isn't enough money to retire on if you don't own your home and if you have kids.
If you're his age you could buy a small house somewhere, put it up for rent, and then live off that rent, residual savings, stocks, and your pension when you retire.
What he's trying and failing to say is that money doesn't go as long as it used to. A middle class family used to be all good on a combined income of 80k. Now the average couple needs to make at least 150k a year to get a duplex and raise one (healthy) child