Looking for some advice from the Mustachian's out there. I'm currently investing 18% of my salary into my 401k at work plus another $5,500/year into a Roth IRA. However, now that I've been reading MMM and my mind has been opened to the possibilities of early retirement, what would you recommend as the best place to accrue investment savings? My understanding about 401k's and Roth IRA's is that you can't touch them until you're in your 60's. But MMM lives off the 4% payout of his investments - so, I guess I'm not clear on how he receives those payouts? Did he only invest in mutual funds or similar through Vanguard, where he can access the money sooner than 401k/IRA retirement age?
Assuming that is what MMM does, then would it make sense for me to decrease my 401k contributions down to 6% (so I still get the company match) and then plow all the rest of the money into more liquid investments like a mutual fund through Vanguard?
I hope this makes sense and doesn't make me look like too much of a noob. Trying to figure all this stuff out makes my head spin. Thanks for any advice!