<prompt> Human: Im 24, been contributing since I was 21. Im aware that any money taken from the fund will qualify as taxable income. Anything I can do to keep the loss to the minimum?EDIT: Im going abroad to study, thats what Ill be using the money for.  <response>: ...not do that? Make less money so your tax bracket is lower? Those are really the only two answers. There are a couple ways to avoid being taxed on a 401k withdrawal in an actual early retirement scenario, but this is clearly not that. Reminder: youll also be penalized 10, on top of being taxed, specifically because the government strongly wants to discourage people from doing exactly that. 