Retiring Before Retirement Age

I think these two guys are about as brave as it gets.

Okay.

This is a great question.

And, Mark, thanks so much for being a valued listener for all these years.

That's really wonderful.

So there's a lot of things that go on in my brain.

I'm not going to give you the end-all, be-all here.

You mentioned a couple of items, however, that, as you know, will be accessible to you.

prior to 59 and a half.

One of them, the most logical would be HSA, assuming you are using it for the triple tax benefit, meaning you are making contributions, you are saving your medical receipts and at 55, call it, you could start removing that to supplement income and it would be tax-free.

That is an option.

I don't think it's the best option, but it is an option.

You could also remove basis or contributions of your Roth IRA pre 59 and a half.

Also no penalty, no tax consequences.

So you would simply look at, you know, your contributions.

Now there needs to be a separate tax form for that.

I don't remember what it is.

Maybe a Howard remembers or can look it up while I'm talking, but there's a separate tax form for that, that you have to file.

So make sure your accountant would do that again.

Another option.

I don't think it's great, but it is an option.

Third option, and a lot of folks utilize this, is early withdrawal out of a 401k, rule of 55.

And there is the ability, most plans have this, to take an early withdrawal out of a 401k at age 55. and start using that money, it acts just like a normal withdrawal as far as it's taxable, it's income taxable, etc.

And I believe there's some nuances there regarding equal distributions and so on and so forth.

Last but not least, there's this thing called a 72T, but I'm going to let you look that up and Google it and learn about that.