If you actually dive down into the study by Charles Schwab that this article is taking their numbers from, it doesn't look unreasonable at all. $1.1 million dollars is the figure stated to be financially comfortable in San Francisco and the exact same number that was polled for New York City. It is approximately double the $540,000 average response from Charlotte, North Carolina. It's also definitely worth noting that this is net worth. If you have paid equity into a home, have other savings, own a car etc. you'll likely be hitting this number living in the Bay Area - this would easily fall into my personal definition of financially comfortable. I would go on to say that this number is likely only double that of somewhere like Charlotte because of real estate costs.

As for the quotes from financial planners... In my experience, they have no idea about the finances of a normal American and deal exclusively with farfetched wealthy individuals. One of my friends in Seattle making $200,000+ was told he could never afford to retire on such a meagre salary by one of these financial planners (note: he was referred to this financial planner by their father who happens to be quite wealthy).