RETIREMENT WITHDRAWALS
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Of course, the goal in carefully planning and contributing to retirement plans is to someday take out your money, as well as the earnings that have grown in the tax-sheltered account. People generally withdraw funds from their retirement plans after they retire, when they often are in a lower tax bracket. Sometimes, however, people face unplanned financial needs—such as a job loss or divorce—and need to take a distribution from their plan before retirement. How to handle these and other types of distributions is the subject of this tutorial.

• What Is a Retirement Plan?
• What Are the Tax Implications of Retirement Plan Distributions?
• When Can You Take Distributions From a Retirement Plan?
• WHEN MUST YOU START TAKING RETIREMENT PLAN DISTRIBUTIONS?
• How Can You Take Distributions From a Retirement Plan?
• What Are Annuity Distribution Methods?
• SUMMARY OF RETIREMENT WITHDRAWALS

To begin our discussion, let's review the basic features of retirement plans.