First time home buyer: Can you withdraw funds from a Roth 401k for a first time home purchase?
The rules are quite different.  There is no special home purchase penalty-free withdrawal.  In the case that your account has been open for five years, you can withdraw the principal (but not the earnings) without penalty.  You may want to talk to a professional for further details. The real question is: why do you want to borrow against your future to finance your present?  Your down payment funds should come from another source than your retirement.  Retirement funds should only be touched in the direst financial straights.
This answer comes from my interpretation of Publication 590 (2011), Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) and particularly What Are Qualified Distributions? section. Please consult the sources yourself or with the help of a qualified professional before doing anything. First, note that due to the rollover loophole, you can take out the money and repay it within 60 days. Missing the deadline would mean paying the taxes on the withdrawal in addition to a 10% penalty. As per JoeTaxpayer's notes below, this applies to the earnings on the account only. The contributions themselves can be withdrawn without penalties (thanks, Joe!).  Second, you might qualify to withdraw 10k for a qualified first-home house purchase. Qualified, in this case, would mean first-time home purchase by yourself, your spouse, your child, parent, or grandchild, made within 120 days of withdrawal (see first home in the above document). Finally, nothing is mentioned about the withdrawal affecting your yearly contribution cap. Any new money coming into the account is new money counted towards the contribution cap (except for the 60 day loophole).  To answer your question then: you can make up the money only under the first scenario (60 day loophole). Qualified withdrawals allow you to avoid the penalties, but as far as I can tell, do not affect the contribution cap. There are a few other details that may depend on your age, reservist status, health, etc. Read the document carefully to see if any of those apply to you. From Schwab With a Roth, withdrawals of contributions are always tax-free because   you've already paid income taxes on that money. So are withdrawals of   earnings of up to $10,000 under the homebuyer exemption, assuming   you've had the Roth for five-plus years. But if you withdraw more than   $10,000 in earnings, that money will be subject to both ordinary   income taxes and the 10 percent penalty. Am I thinking correctly and can I do the 2 separate withdrawals? Yes. Is there anything else I'm missing?  Yes. For starters - instead of withdrawing 401k - why don't you take a loan out of it? This can be dangerous, but also can be beneficial - both for the same reason. The beneficial part is this: you don't pay neither the income tax nor the penalty on the amount you take out as a loan. I.e.: immediate saving of 35%. You can also get the full loan amount (up to 50% of the 401k balance) at once, no need to wait for the next year. You'll be saving on the difference on the APR between the credit card debt (which is usually huge) and the 401k loan (which is usually very low), and that will allow you to consolidate the debt and cover it quicker. The dangerous part is also taxes. In case you lose your job - you have to pay off the loan immediately (within 3 months). If you don't - the remaining balance will be considered as a taxable distribution and you'll owe the 25%+10% on them. But - if you don't lose your job, you win. And repaying the loan will revert your 401k balances back to the full amount, while with withdrawal - you cannot put it back (after 60 days are over, at least). So keep that in mind. Check with your 401k plan provider on the loan terms and costs (they'll charge some symbolic amount for managing the loan for you). "Pete and Noah addressed the math, showing how this is, in effect, converting a 30yr to a ~23yr mortgage, at a cost, plus payment about 8% higher (1 extra payment per year). No magic there. The real issue, as I see it, is whether this is the best use of the money. Keep in mind, once you pay extra principal, which in effect is exactly what this is, it's not easy to get it back. As long as you have any mortgage at all, you have the need for liquidity, enough to pay your mortgage, tax, utilities, etc, if you find yourself between jobs or to get through any short term crisis.  I've seen people choose the ""sure thing"" prepayment VS the ""risky"" 401(k) deposit. Ignoring a match is passing up a 50% or 100% return in most cases. Too good to pass up.  2 points to add - I avoided the further tangent of the tax benefit of IRA/401(k) deposits. It's too long a discussion, today's rate for the money saved, vs the rate on withdrawal. Worth considering, but not part of my answer. The other discussion I avoid is Nicholas' thoughts on the long term market return of 10% vs today's ~4% mortgage rate. This has been debated elsewhere and morphs into a ""pre-pay vs invest"" question." It is a very bad idea in almost all circumstances to borrow/withdraw from an IRA (or other retirement account) for a down payment on a house and I would only suggest it as a last resort. Even as a last resort it is a bad idea, and I'd suggest you aren't ready to buy a house until you have enough non-retirement money to do the deal. In your case you have money in savings, you should absolutely do that. If you don't feel comfortable using your emergency fund, you need to keep saving until you can afford to buy a house. Your retirement fund isn't a piggy bank for when you need money now, it is a payment you make to keep a decent lifestyle later in life. When you are retired your options for alternate income streams will be much more limited.  The biggest hidden cost is the opportunity cost of not having that money working for you. Your final retirement balance is very likely (when done correctly) going to be mostly comprised of the return on your investment more so than the money you put in. While you are young your greatest asset is time for that money to grow, don't throw that away when you have viable options! The other problem, if you are talking about an employer plan (401K/Roth) is that if you lose your job you will have 60-90 days to pay back the loan or it will be considered a distribution and subject to taxes plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty. This happened to a bunch of my friends from work when our company got bought by another company forcing them to close the old 401K plan and transfer to the new one. Short version: Don't touch retirement money for non-retirement things unless it is a life/death emergency and you have no other options. It seems that you're asking for a legal/tax advice, and I vote to close the question as off-topic for that. This is not the place. But on the second thought, I will share some of the ideas I have, provided of course that you will not consider them as any sort of tax advice whatsoever, and will not rely on it for any tax planning without verifying with a licensed professional. Taking 401k money out just like that means that you are going to pay your taxes on that money plus additional 10% penalty. As @JoeTaxpayer said, this rarely makes economic sense. However, taking 401K money out to pay your medical bills (which would otherwise be deductible, pay attention to the nuances) doesn't trigger the penalty. It looks like in your case you might (unfortunately) have a chance to use this provision. Another case when you can withdraw money without penalty is disability, which according to what you describe is, unfortunately, a situation you're very likely to find yourself in. Also, you can withdraw funds as income for a substantial period of time, and under certain conditions it will not be subject to the 10% penalty. Of course, leaving it to the beneficiaries, as mentioned by others, is another and very valid option. See publication 575 for specific details, and be sure to consult a tax professional before doing anything. "Yes, it is possible to withdraw money from your Roth IRA before retirement (but I wouldn't necessarily advise you to do so.)  Here's the good news, and the bad news: The good news: Unlike a traditional IRA, money contributed to a Roth IRA is done so on an after-tax basis, meaning you don't benefit from a tax deduction on contributions. So, the money you withdraw from your Roth IRA will not be taxed entirely as ordinary income. In fact, you are allowed to withdraw the amount of your original contributions (also known as basis) without any taxes or penalties. Let's imagine you originally deposited $9000 of that current $10K total value – then in such a case, $9000 could be withdrawn tax and penalty free. The bad news: When it comes to the investment earnings – the other $1000 in my example –  it's a different story:  Since you wouldn't be age 59 1/2 at the time of withdrawal, any money taken out beyond your original contributions would be considered a non-qualified withdrawal and subject to both ordinary income taxes plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty.  Ouch! Perhaps you might want to restrict your withdrawal to your original contributions.  I would imagine if you've had the account for such a short period of time that much or all of your account value is original contributions anyway. A good article about the rules for early IRA withdrawals is About.com's Tax Penalty for Early Distribution of Retirement Funds. Note: If your Roth IRA funds were the result of a rollover from another account type, other rules may apply. See Roth IRA (Wikipedia) for more detail; search for ""rollover"". Regarding the withdrawal process itself and the timing, you should check with your account custodian on how to proceed." There are several disadvantages: You cannot generally withdraw from a 401(k) while you're still employed at the same employer. When you do withdraw, then unless you roll it over, you pay tax on the whole amount based on the marginal tax rate you have that year. If it comes on top of your regular salary, the whole withdrawal will be taxed at the higher marginal rates. You will also pay extra 10% penalty for the withdrawal. For home purchase you can take out up to $10K without the penalty, I doubt that would be enough for downpayment. There are probably more, but these are the major ones I can spot. The same goes to the 457(k), except that those don't have the 10% penalty. You can withdraw the principal of your Roth IRA account (i.e.: the amounts after tax deposited there) without a tax. However, in case of conversion - you have to wait for five years before you can do that. Otherwise, 10% penalty will apply. It is actually mentioned in the article you linked to. Taxable portion in that context is the portion you paid tax on when converting. In the case you described (converting your 401k) that would be the whole amount of the conversion. There are 3 options (option 2 may not be available to you) When you invest 18,000 in a Traditional 401k, you don't pay taxes on the 18k the year you invest, but you pay taxes as you withdraw.  There's a Required Minimum Distribution required after age 70.  If your income is low enough, you won't pay taxes on your withdrawals.  Otherwise, you pay as if it is income.  However, you don't pay payroll tax (Social Security / Medicare) on the withdrawals.  You pay no tax until you withdraw. When you invest 18,000 in a Roth 401k, you pay income tax on the 18,000 in the year it's invested, but you pay nothing after that. When you invest 18,000 in a taxable investment account, you pay income tax on that 18,000 in the year it's invested, you pay tax on dividends (even if they're re-invested), and then you pay capital gains tax when you withdraw. But remember, tax rules and tax rates are only good so long as Congress doesn't change the applicable laws. "You can (and definitely should) withdraw any part of the contribution that will put you over the contribution limit.  You can (and should if you need to) withdraw to repay any medical payments you made from outside the account.  You can (but should avoid at all costs) withdraw (distribute) from the HSA for non-medical reasons. Here's the IRS publication which covers this:  https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969 Here's the bit about distributions that covers what you're trying to do: You can receive tax-free distributions from your HSA to pay or be reimbursed for qualified medical expenses you incur after you establish the HSA. If you receive distributions for other reasons, the amount you withdraw will be subject to income tax and may be subject to an additional 20% tax. You don’t have to make distributions from your HSA each year.  It is better to pay from your checking and reimburse than to over-fund the HSA.  Best route forward is to reduce your contributions for the rest of the year, especially if continuing them will cause excess contributions.  Another nasty gotcha: Excess contributions.     You will have excess contributions if the contributions to your HSA for the year are greater than the limits discussed earlier. Excess contributions aren’t deductible. Excess contributions made by your employer are included in your gross income. If the excess contribution isn’t included in box 1 of Form W-2, you must report the excess as ""Other income"" on your tax return. Generally, you must pay a 6% excise tax on excess contributions. See Form 5329, Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans (Including IRAs) and Other Tax-Favored Accounts, to figure the excise tax. The excise tax applies to each tax year the excess contribution remains in the account.  You may withdraw some or all of the excess contributions and avoid paying the excise tax on the amount withdrawn if you meet the following conditions.  •You withdraw the excess contributions by the due date, including extensions, of your tax return for the year the contributions were made. •You withdraw any income earned on the withdrawn contributions and include the earnings in ""Other income"" on your tax return for the year you withdraw the contributions and earnings. If you will not be over your maximum contribution, let the contribution ride.  Make sure your HSA balance is divided between cash, stock fund, bond fund.  Much like your 401k.  Because the part that you don't spend on medical expenses this year can be spent in future years' medical expenses, and if you have anything left when you retire you can spend it on whatever you want.  And the funds, including growth, are not taxed until you distribute them. Bottom line:  if the funds will not cause excess contribution, leave them in.  Otherwise, take them out as soon as possible." "For 401(k) and regular IRA, you pay income tax on withdrawals from the account. At a certain age, there is a ""required minimum distribution"". This is an amount you must withdraw from the account or you face penalties. I've also read about, but am not familiar with, mechanisms by which you can retire early and start taking withdrawals before the regular official retirement age. (These may or may not be legit, I didn't do any research on it.) A Roth IRA, which is not ""tax deferred"" and thus not technically covered by your question, there is no tax on withdrawals (assuming you are at retirement age) and no required minimum distribution. Something to watch out for on your accounts are fees that they charge for withdrawals. I was in a 401(k) once that had a $50 fee per-withdrawal. A monthly check from this account would eat your money! I paid the fee once, when I rolled it into an account at a brokerage after leaving the company." I am going through this right now.  We recently moved and learned the lesson of needing a good bit of wealth in easily accessible accounts.  In our case for a down payment on a new house.  So we have decided to increase our emergency fund to $50,000.00 minimum.  Then throwing the rest in retirement accounts seems like a safe bet. So my rule of thumb is think of how much a 20% down payment would be on a new house if you needed to move.  That way you can avoid pmi while also avoiding penalties for withdrawing from your retirement accounts. I agree with the others that pulling the money out of your 401(k) is not the best idea due to the taxes and penalties.  But I also think that a 401(k) loan is not a good option either.  Somehow life happens, and the time when you can least afford to repay the loan (just after losing your job) will be the time when you have to repay the loan or pay the taxes and penalties.  There's just too much risk there.  You also lose the compounding gains you'd get from the investment, and it's likely not worth sacrificing your future retirement for this. It's probably worth finding out how close you are to having your house appraise out for a successful re-fi.  Without that information, you're just guessing.  Depending on how close you are, you pile up as much cash as you can over the next few months to try to pay down the mortgage enough to qualify for the re-fi.  As you're doing this, if home values start coming up in your area, you'll have that going for you as well.  It might even be worth suspending your 401(k) contributions for a short while to give you more cash to put towards the re-fi goal. For this type of business a sole tradership would seem appropriate. You might then want to register as a limited company at a later date if you were growing significantly, taking on premises, seeking debt etc, as that would then shield you from liability.