Unexpected expenses like medical bills or a death in the family can happen to anyone. And mortgage payments and credit card balances can creep up on you. When you're strapped for cash, the amount you've accumulated in your retirement accounts can look mighty tempting. And it's easy to pay the fee and borrow some cash from your retirement stash.

Some 27 percent of employees planning to retire have withdrawn funds early from retirement investments, according to a recent Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive online survey. The reasons for withdrawing funds before retirement include (with share of all employees who have tapped accounts as a result):

Bruce Christopher has always been a do-it-yourself investor. Since he and his wife, Judy, retired several years ago, they have withdrawn 3 to 4 percent annually from their mutual-fund portfolio for "play money," to spend on vacations and discretionary purchases (the couple lives on a combination of Social Security, pensions, and an annuity). But Christopher wanted to figure out a systematic withdrawal plan rather than sporadically redeem mutual-fund shares throughout the year. In January, he decided to put the portfolio on autopilot. "I got to the point where I thought I needed a little help," says Christopher, 64, who lives in Vonore, Tenn., near Knoxville. He considered converting the account into a target-date fund, which rebalances automatically to include more bonds over time.

Dear Alpha Consumer,

I am currently working and plan to attend business school in fall 2009. I want to save as much as I can in advance and also avoid as much tax as possible. If I contribute toward my 401(k) plan, will it be possible to withdraw the money without any penalty and taxes?

The short answer is no. In general, workers with 401(k) accounts can't make early withdrawals without paying a 10 percent penalty. There are exceptions, including for "hardship" situations, but going to business school is not likely to qualify. And it is possible to take a loan out against a 401(k), but there are plenty of reasons to avoid that, including the fact that you'll miss out on years of compounding. However, if you are confident that you will repay it and catch up on retirement savings later, a loan is one option to consider. (Be sure to check that your company's plan allows taking out the loan even while you're not employed there; some plans don't.)

An even better option, suggests Perry Chlan of the Fidelity Research Institute, is to save up in a 529 plan, which is a tax-sheltered account designed for college savings. Such accounts generally can be used for graduate school, too. That way, you can avoid paying taxes and a withdrawal penalty.

Venture capitalist-blogger John Ellis offers up an original fiscal stimulus plan:

Well, it's not mine, actually. It's the brainchild of one Leonard Yablon, my neighbor and friend and the former CFO of Forbes. And it goes like this:

1. Allow individual 401K withdrawals of $12,000 for the next 100 days.

2. Individual withdrawals up to $12,000 will be tax free.

3. The result should be an immediate infusion of $120-$180 billion into the economy.

4. Which should stabilize the markets. There are other plans out there. But the Yablon Plan seems the easiest to get done fast.

You don't have to take required minimum distributions from an IRA or 401(k) this year -- so let your account manager know if you want automatic withdrawals to stop.

WAUKESHA - For people considering an early withdrawal from a retirement plan due to unemployment, Pat Wirth, partner with Chortek & Gottschalk LLP in Waukesha, has one guiding piece of advice.

Conventional retirement wisdom tells us that when you leave a job, you should roll over your 401(k) to an IRA. Rollovers allow you to continue delaying taxes on your nest egg as it accumulates and avoid an early-withdrawal penalty. But if you have an especially good 401(k) with your old company, it may be better to leave your retirement money there or roll it over into your new company's 401(k).

A whopping 40 percent of workers between the ages of 20 and 40 cash out of their retirement plan when they switch jobs, according to a recent Fidelity survey. Raiding your 401(k) piggy bank can be tempting—what with the shaky economy and the shrinking value of investments—but the consequences are steep.

Fidelity came up with this calculation: A person in the 25 percent federal tax bracket who makes a $50,000 withdrawal before age 59½ will pay federal taxes of $12,500 on that money. Assuming a hypothetical 7 percent state tax, that's an additional $3,500. Then, there's a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty ($5,000 in this case). So, after taxes and penalties, that $50,000 in retirement savings becomes $29,000.

(By Dave Carpenter, Associated Press) Is your retirement IQ up to the challenge? Take the test and find out (answers at the end): 1 What percentage of your savings can you withdraw annually in retirement without risk of running out of money? (a) 3 percent (b) 4 percent (c) 7 percent (d) 10 percent. 2 About what percentage of preretirement income is generally needed to maintain a person's ...

MUSCATINE, Iowa — Superintendent Tom Williams is expected to withdraw his application for the Muscatine Community School District’s early retirement program, according to “What the Heck,” a Friday morning talk-radio show on KWPC.