The scary part of the bitcoin bubble (and it is a bubble) is that most of these people putting a lot of money into BTC are not going to be able to get their money back out in the event of a market downturn.
The price has two main factors: exponential growth in its adoption, and a speculative bubble on top of that. As long as the growth continues, everyone who invests in it will make plenty of money in the long run. The bubble has already 'popped' 4 times or so in its history.
So how much is the author's BTC savings worth now?
From the article: "As of midnight UTC on May 29, 2011, the rate is USD 8,30 per bitcoin."
Assuming he bought at that price, it's worth roughly 120 times as much when it hit $1000/BTC.