why do it?....I too have not had the fancy vehicles, the Ipods, the trips, the vacation homes etc because I thought it best to provide for my own retirement PLUS leave a little something for the kids....
it has hurt the tax situation...
but I am a little too young to pull it out...and that begs the question...where do you put it?...anywhere you have it it could be available to the feds...
Turn it into checks and get a locked security box at the bank. They'll have no idea what's in there.
Can you take a “loan” out on it? At my co., we are allowed to take a loan up to 1/2 the value of our pension balance but no more than $50K and no less than $1K. you could sock the money somewhere else (mattress, lol) or pay your mortgage down like previous FReeper suggested. Of course you have to start paying your loan back - stretch it out to the longest term possible and the smallest amount possible.