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The rule of thumb is that you can't get your hands on your qualified retirement account or tax-deferred account until after you reach age 59½. (If you need to look up any words from that previous sentence, we've got a brief glossary here to help you out.) Any earlier, and you could get whacked with an early distribution penalty (an additional 10% on top of the regular tax rate for withdrawing IRA funds). This could be important for those of you who have built up a healthy retirement fund but are still under the magic age of 59½. But, with virtually all things taxes, there are exceptions to the general rule.

One of them is death and another is disability, but let's not dwell on those. Let's mention instead more appealing exceptions, such as payment of qualified higher education expenses and/or qualified first-time homebuyer expenses. (There are a few others as well.) But what if you don't have any such expenses, and you still want to get your mitts on your retirement funds without incurring the 10% early distribution penalty? Can you avoid the penalty? If you carefully follow the rules (which we explain in brief here), the answer is a resounding, "Yes!"

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Before Age 59 ½ - SEPP »