Retirement accounts too long term?

[purplish]

I have a question, maybe it's weird but... do any of you ever wonder if maxing out retirement accounts is too long term, if you're planning on retiring much earlier in life?  For me personally right now, I only need an extra $300 a month to reach FI.  However if I maxed out an IRA (I don't have access to a 401k, but this question could go for that as well), it would take me longer to FI, since I wouldn't be able to access the money/interest till I'm older.  Thoughts?

[MDM]

A good case can be made to max tax-advantaged (aka retirement) accounts of any and all kinds, but for this case let's look only at Roth IRAs.

All Roth contributions are withdrawable without penalty at any time.  Given the choice between investing in a Roth or a taxable account, why not let your investment returns accumulate tax free?  If needed you can withdraw your Roth contributions for many years before you would need to withdraw investment returns - by which time those should be tax free also.

Does that fit your situation?

You might also be able to justify traditional IRA contributions.  See http://www.madfientist.com/retire-even-earlier/.

[Middlesbrough]

With IRA contributions, rollovers can be withdrawn after five years as well. Look into IRA pipelines during retirement.

[Doubleh]

Simple answer is no, IRA AND 401K are not to long term for early retirement, there are several strategies to access funds early.

This article from mad fientist, and the articles linked from it, do a great job of explaining some of the routes you can take and the benefits to your portfolio of using tax advantaged accounts:

http://www.madfientist.com/retire-even-earlier/