On Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 12:26:59 PM UTC-5, Ralph Mowery wrote:
In article ,
says...
YOu can not take that money out before you reach 59 1/2 years old
without some very heavy tax on that money. There are some exceptions.

It's only a ten percent early withdrawal tax penalty, if that's what you
call very heavy.



I was thinking of the regular income tax you will have to pay on the
401k plus the extra 10 %. That could hit you for close to 40 % which I
call heavy.

But you have to pay the regular tax regardless of whether you take it out
early or not. And you'd have to have taxable income of over $160K to wind
up in the 32% bracket. If you're a couple, take out $50K, the regular
tax would be minimal, maybe zero. It's only 12% up to $39K and that's
taxable income, after all the deductions.