How Can I Pull Money from my Roth IRA Before Retirement?

[Tyson]

Hi all, I've got about $13k in a Roth IRA that I set up for my wife and we have been contributing to for the past few years.  It's got $11k that we contributed directly, plus about $2k in growth. 

My wife is starting a business (as a realtor) and needs the $11k to set up cover her startup and business expenses.  How can she withdraw the $$ with the least amount of tax/penalty implications? 

I haven't read up on this, so treat me like I'm a newbie :)  Thanks!

[boarder42]

you can take money out of a roth that you put in whenever you want with no tax implications.

https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/retirement_and_planning/understanding_iras/roth_ira/withdrawal_rules

I'd recommend looking for other options for this even short term financing thru a HELOC before i'd pull my money out though.

[dandarc]

You can take your Roth IRA basis (what you've put in) out at any time , tax and penalty free.  As boarder recommends - it is probably better to get this money some other way since you can't put it back in to the Roth.