Without seeing the quote, the 11,000 range is at the horizontal line which means if you have a 401 it might drop a large percentage.  Who said that?

Here's a snapshot of the Weekly Chart (the first chart was the Monthly Chart).  The horizontal line is called 'support' for obvious reasons, while the brown diagonal line is the 200 moving average, which is also a key factor for support.  If the price action begins heading south through the support, then the potential for getting ugly could be there.

what does it mean when expert analysists say that the dow could soon go to 11,000.

what does it mean for main street in my daily life?

Well, using the DOW is ok, but it's only the metrics of 30 big companies, so on that account the DOW is more easily manipulated vs say the S&P 500 (500 companies) or Russell 2000 (2000 companies), but most often they all move together anyway so no big deal imo.

But DOW 11k essentially means he is using the 30 DOW companies as a gauge for the economy. DOW 11k is less than  1/2 of the current level of 31k, which means layoffs, higher prices on everything, and lower wages in relation to those prices. It also means 401k and other retirement accounts will be cut in half *at least* which means many retirees will want to come out of retirement to supplement their retirement but will have a hard time finding a job - along with everyone else.