Little Known Way to Tap Your IRA or 401K Early Without Paying 10% Penalty

The method requires one to "annuitize" their IRA. If you have a 401k, you would first have to do a conversion to an regular IRA. Here's what SmartMoney says about it. Pay particular attention to the 2nd paragraph. SmartMoney goes on to give additional methods where you can tap IRAs (Roth & Regular) while also avoiding the 10% early distribution penalty.