Risk of increasing retirement age on my Roth IRA?

I'm young. Social Security is guaranteed to get into serious trouble before I'm anywhere near my 60s. So, I'm saving for retirement on my own. Everone seems to recommend maxing out 401(k) and Roth IRA contributions. You can't withdraw from these without penalty until you're of retirement age. I plan to retire early. My question is: If the government moves the official retirement age back in order to save social security, will it make the money I have in these retirement accounts unavailable when I need them? Do I run the risk of the government forcing me NOT to retire?

Public Comments

1. Unfortunately, if you withdraw your accounts before retirement age, you will have to pay a penalty. But the amount of taxes you're saving now is worth it; the penalty you pay is based on your income bracket, and by the time you're in your sixties that has reduced.
2. There's no rule against non-IRA investing... The current minimum age to withdraw from an IRA penalty free is 59 1/2. A Roth IRA is pre-tax money, so you can withdraw at any time - you've already paid the tax, but you're not being assessed tax on the income of that account. But if you've done that, establish your own investment fund, at E-trade, or Schwab, or Scottrade. You will be taxed on the income, but if you make $1000, and have to pay $150 in taxes, you still have an $850 gain! That can help speed up retirement, and that account has no withdrawal restrictions.
3. YES! If you're looking to retire early and get a steady flow of income...there is a way. Not sure how old you are but let just assume you're 35(just a random number, ok?) ...Keep saving into a Fixed annuity or a Flexible annuity, if you can do this with after tax money, it gets even better. If you set it up as a Non-qualified Annuity, which means its after tax money, and just let it build up whether its 10 or 20yrs from now when you're 55. There is two ways you can get income from this, either withdraw just the interest every month (just like a paycheck from an employer), the insurance company and deposit it into your account. And file your taxes with that as regular income. Example, if you've got about 75k saved, and worst case scenario, an insurance company will give you 3% interest monthly, thats a monthly cash flow of 2250. Of course, you have to file taxes on it as regular income. Or you can set up 2 annuity accounts and annuitize one at age 55 or earlier, your choice and save the other one for later. Annuitizing is basically purchasing a contract from the insurance company that they will pay you a certain amount for the rest of your life or a certain amount for a certain period of time. The latter usually gets the higher amount of payout. Anyways, the list goes on and on for options to retire early and not get penalized. The key is to fund a savings method with after tax money...this way, the government can care less what you do with it....well, as long as you pay taxes on your gains that is :)