I saw this article recently on Dividend Mantra's website, and thought i should share it with the Investor Alley.
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http://www.dividendmantra.com/2013/08/why-i-hold-100-of-my-equity-investments.html#more"
Dividend Mantra lays out my thoughts exactly for my particular personal situation below:
When your employer doesn't match anything.
When your employer retirement options have all extremely high fees.
When your employer offers no pension.
When your employer sucks, lol.
Dreams of investing in Real Estate rental property and Business start-ups can't be achieved within a 401k/IRA account either without extreme loopholes. Of course a bit of both could be utilized depending on your personal situation and...
After much discussion and debate and many threads in these forums, i have learned other ways on how to achieve FI within 10 years with MMM's strategy on a 401k/IRA/HSA exempted loophole to avoid 10% early withdrawal penalty fees. So if my particular situation does ever change soon, like finding a new employer or starting my own SEPP-401k/IRA from my own business...then i will consider those options as good options, which i have learned here from Investor Alley.
But investor alley should also beware that some Non-Retirement Account strategies exist also for early FI, and people shouldn't be so quick to dismiss them.