I understand the general idea behind retiring early: aggressively saving until the income produced by your investment portfolio covers your cost of living.
But I don't yet understand how to execute this strategy in real life.
MMM retired when he was 30 after working for years in desk jobs, so presumably he saved the bulk of his money in a retirement account vehicle, like a 401(k).
However, the 401(k) doesn't allow withdrawals before age 59.5, unless you want to pay a hefty penalty.
Once your nest egg is large enough to produce the income required to live off of, how do you actually get the income out of these retirement accounts to then cover living expenses with?
Is there a way to avoid the penalty associated with early (younger than 59.5) withdrawals?