I'd go even further than that. When he said that, he was over 40. He should have way more than ~$50k in a 401k by this point. They don't have kids and he signed away his daughter. His car is 15 years old and worth less than $10,000, so presumably no car payment, either. Their only expenses are mortgage and food and whatever shitty vacations they take.
If they weren't lazy pieces of shit, they'd have a lot of money. Even having a $50,000 a year job from his mid-20s to 40 (plus 3% annual raises) should have him well over $100,000. Contributing just $5,000 a year with a modest 6% return and 3% employer match, starting at age 25, would have him close to $200,000 by age 40. That doesn't even include savings and doesn't include Niki, who would have over $100,000 of her own. If they'd both had steady employment since around age 25, by right now their combined net worth of just 401k and savings, so not even including the house, would be within shouting distance of $500k.
Again, that's just $5,000 a year in contributions. No kids, no loans aside from the mortgage, no extravagant purchases, no big medical bills. Any 40+ year old in that situation would be contributing far more than that, unless they were hellbent on paying down the mortgage. If he'd been contributing $10,000 a year since he was 25 (very doable, $200 a week), by his current age of 45, he'd have half a million in his 401k.
Sorry to be long-winded but I think about his finances quite a bit and how bad of a situation he's in. No/low 401k, very little in social security in his mid-40s despite no kids or expenses beyond mortgage. And practically everyone in Pat's sphere is like this. 40-65 year olds, mostly childless, unable to scrape together a few grand as needed or running Go Fund Mes for minor expenses. I don't mean to get all Five Sinks on anyone but it is pathetic.