In those primitive days, aspiring authors would charge all their publishing expenses on credit cards or
withdraw from retirement accounts in order to make their dreams come true.
Specifically, nearly 9 percent have taken out a
loan from their retirement accounts during the past 12 months, and almost 5 percent have taken a permanent hardship withdrawal.
The future tax brackets at the time of your retirement as well as your
income from retirement accounts and other sources will determine the amount of taxes you will pay on withdrawals.
The rules require that distributions
from retirement accounts in recent years be deducted from new contributions, preventing anyone from gaming the system this way.
It means in most cases, all the money
drained from retirement accounts to keep a doomed mortgage out of foreclosure for an extra year, could have survived a bankruptcy.
And when you are in retirement and no longer bringing in income, you will be responsible for paying those taxes
either from your retirement accounts or from other sources of funds.
Prepare: Without an adequate emergency fund, clients may find themselves
drawing from retirement accounts or investments in the event of an unexpected cost, such as a car repair or medical bill.
In return for this special treatment, penalties are imposed (in addition to tax) if you withdraw money
from your retirement account before age 59.5 which presumably is on the distant horizon for you.
For example, if you find yourself in a lower tax bracket entering retirement because you've stopped earning a large annual salary, it might make sense to withdraw money
from retirement accounts like IRAs and 401 (k) s first.