Roth 457 is possibly the stupidest retirement account for just this reason. Which is a shame, because traditional 457 is perhaps the best one for someone looking to FIRE.
The point is, you cannot simply withdraw just the contributions from a Roth 457 before 59.5. Because that is what the law says. You don't get ordering rules in a Roth 457 the way you do in a Roth IRA. Don't like that? Two options:
As seattle cyclone says, roll the whole thing to Roth IRA, the basis should follow, and you can withdraw contributions at any time from your Roth IRA. You may want to verify that Roth 457 to Roth IRA rollovers work the same way that Roth 401K to Roth IRA rollovers work, but that's how you do what you want to do.
Option 2 is to lobby congress to change the law regarding Roth 457s. Good luck with that one.
Thanks for the clarification dandarc. Interesting that I hadn't read anything about that before. Next time I'll just look at the law first. It's not a huge amount in this case, but I'll keep it in mind if I have a 457 option in the future.
I imagine a lot of folks don't really care as they're not planning on withdrawing before 59.5 anyway. In Florida, for example, you have FRS as a state employee and a 457. No 401K. So a lot of folks who want to put more than what you can put into FRS wind up treating the 457 just like a 401K, and that's a perfectly rational thing to do if you're in this situation and looking at a "normal" retirement. So for your typical person on a Dave-Ramsey type of plan, Roth 457 vs. Traditional 457 looks an awful lot like any other Roth vs. Traditional decision. You've got a situation where not many people will know the rules because they don't matter to that may people.
But for someone shooting for early retirement, it actually isn't the same as other Roth vs. Traditional decisions. We're saying "you mean to tell me that I get an additional $18K of tax-advantaged space AND there's no early withdrawal penalty! YES!" But the withdrawal details actually matter for us.
Anyway, Roth 457 just isn't what you think it would be:
457 primary benefit = penalty-free withdrawal after separation. No 59.5 rules to get around.
Roth primary benefit = pay tax now, no tax on withdrawal.
Roth 457, you'd think would be "pay tax now, no tax on withdrawal, even before 59.5". But it is not - it is "pay tax now, no tax on withdrawal after 59.5. But tax on pro-rated earnings if you withdraw before 59.5". At least there is no 10% penalty on top of the regular tax.