Janice,

Phil Marti said: Your plan may restrict the ways you can take withdrawals.

I can verify that. In my case, when I retired in 1998 at age 55, my employer's plan would have allowed withdrawals from my 401(k) plan, but once started the withdrawals could not be changed or stopped -- at least in the near term; I assume something else might have kicked in at age 70-1/2.

If you decide to start withdrawals from your 401(k) and your employer's plan has similar restrictions, you can always have a "recovery" plan of rolling the 401(k) into an IRA if you want to suspend the withdrawals. If you are still under 59-1/2 at that time, you'll have to follow "Rule 72(t)" and start Substantially Equal Periodic Payments if you still want/need to take money out. So it can get a little complicated, but you do have options and if you do your homework, you should find that you have quite a bit of flexibility.

Hope this helps,
Phooley in Phoenix