According to the article you linked, based on your age (I'm in the same cohort), the average 401k is worth $91,000. Are you not contributing at all to your 401k? Did you get a late start, or have some hardship that required you to break into the 401k (divorce in my case)?

I've never heard the 3x annual salary in savings, but that also seems super extreme. Assume a salary of $100K per year... No one I know has ~ $300K in their savings. Maybe they have equity in their house, or other equity assets that get them to that sort of number on paper, but I've never heard of someone in our age group (40-50) just having $300K liquid in a bank account.