<prompt> Human: Chasing returns I know is a big no no in personal finance, however I believe this stock could be a once in a 10 year opportunity considering the massive size of Chinese commerce, the absurd financial information and growth that we have had glimpses of. Now heres the nitty gritty:I will be taking a 10 hit off the bat in taking money from my 401k.I also know that my tax rate is about 12.So total cost of taking money from my 401k would be approximately 2200.00 based on a 10k payout.My thinking here is that this stock could have a huge return upside similar to Google which has averaged almost a 15 return over the last 10 years since it has gone public. The logical reasoning says to leave the money in my 401k and let it compound, but does anyone have any other insight one way or the other?Assistant: Almost no one on pf recommends taking money out of tax-advantaged space. It is a limited quantity. You cant retroactively go back and put money into it later.Not that this matters, but Im not sure how you calculate your 12 tax rate. The early distribution would be added to your income, so very likely would all be taxed at your marginal tax rate. I guess if youre on the cusp between 10 and 15 maybe the effective tax could be 12. But this is a minor issue.If you want to speculate you should be doing it with funds youve saved for that purpose. Not funds that are already protected from taxation. If you dont have such money hanging around, then its likely that your cash flow doesnt support stock picking in the first place. It means your net worth is very low. Would that be the case? Probably better to focus on improving your balance sheet, increasing your retirement savings, and only once thats in place think about recreational uses of your money.Its possible Alibaba is the next Google and will return 15 a year for 10 years. Or not. But the huge tax hit means you have to overcome quite a headwind to break even.Have you considered opening an IRA if you dont already have one? You could hold your Alibaba stock in that if you wanted. It could only absorb 5500 this year. Do you have that much in savings that you could earmark? Or is the point that your 401k is your only source?Human: Well, my tax rate of 12 is from my previous years of doing my taxes and getting the print out at the end that gives you the break down. I currently do not have any funds saved for speculating, however my past dealings with stocks have been extremely good. I currently am holding shares of mastercard in a scottrade account. During the financial crash, I sold all of my loses off and went all in with citibank. That ended well with quadrupling my money in about 4 months time. I eventually liquidated out of the stock market in favor of tangible fine art. I recently 2013 jumped back into the stock market with Tesla and Mastercard.Currently between my wife and I we sock away 26 wife 10 with a 6 match and my 8 with a 2 match of our income into 401ks every month with our net worth being around 300k.Currently, I have not explored the option of an IRA because we have put most of our discretionary income into our 401ks.  <response>: Okay there are a few things that you dont have a full enough understanding of to really make considering this even an option. First if you paid 12 in takes last year that means that your marginal tax rate was over 12 because some of your income was taxed at less then 12, also taking out 10k will possibly bump you into an even higher tax rate on some of the income. Also if your wife is saving the equivilent of 16 of her pay and you are saving the equivilent of 10 of your pay that does not total 26 in savings. That would be like saying I saved 40 on these pants and 60 on this shirt so I saved 100 making this outfit free. If you and your wife make about the same you saved about 13 of your income, if she makes more then the is higher, if you make more the is lower. If you dont fully understand how marginal tax rates work and how percentages of multiple incomes work you really dont have the tools needed to even consider playing the stock market with your 401k money. Even if you did have a detailed understanding of these things and more it would still be a very bad idea. 