<prompt> Human: Hello all!So, dont get me wrong. If an employer is willing to match the first X, Im all about the immediate return; however, what if an employee was terminated from the company later on? Could the company pull their match, and leave you with a 401k where you cannot touch the money until your considered the retirement age?I personally plan to supplement my retirement with rental income, and stocks. I prefer it that way because I can have complete control of my money. Im willing to invest in a 401k only to match my employers offer. Anything else, Id rather pay towards another investment where I can leverage it before retirement age 40 - 55. To give some background, in my area, several Food Lion grocery store managers were terminated. They probably could have sued, but they lost their match from the company. I believe they were still able to keep the capital gains given from the money that was invested by the company, but the company took back their match, essentially stripping several thousands of dollars. Is this normal for a company to do? What if I want to quit a company, and move to another? Could they pull their match as well, or does it only apply to terminations?tl;dr - I dont like 401ks because they restrict you from using them until youre retirement age, and I want to retire early. Also, even though I can match an employers offer, can they still take away that match if I was to be laid off or terminated?EDIT: My plan for retirement is to move from home to home. Rather than place all my money towards maxing out a 401k each year, I was thinking about aggressively paying off home mortgages. I want to live in a home for about 5 years, pay down the mortgage until theres about 20 left, and rent out the home.Assistant: I dont know about idiot, but you dont seem to understand the mechanics and benefits of these. Lets just go with ignorant and naive. Company contributions can be subject to a vesting schedule, but thats increasingly rare these days; most plans have immediate vesting. Its required under the popular safe harbor rules.You own your 401k balance and can transfer it after you leave employment. There are ways to access retirement funds before retirement age if you really want to, but you are probably also going to want money after you reach retirement age.Human: Ive known about the transfer process, but not the vesting rules. The only problem I have with attempting to max out the 401k is the fact that I would rather use that money to pay down homes. I plan to move 5-6 times throughout my life, and want to aggressively pay down mortgages. I want to be able to move out with 20 of the mortgage value left, and rent to other individuals.I also dont like the idea of a penalty for choosing to draw out money early; however, I may be able to live off of rental income during the interim period?Assistant: You dont have to max out the 401k. Suppose you make 50Kyear could be more of course and you put 6 into your 401k and your employer matches with 3. Do that for what, 25 years, something like that? That assumes you are 25 and retire at 50.Your 401k balance assuming 7 annual return which is not guaranteed, but its often more than that would be 284,000ish in present dollars, assuming no inflation or raises, and youd have paid no taxes on that. If we assume your marginal tax bracket is about 20 including state taxes, those 4500 contributions would have only cost you 2400 annually after tax. Net net, if you assume you are going to have the cash flow to pay down these mortgages and buy more rental properties, which is probably quite a bit harder than you are imagining since houses you want to live in are often not the best rentals, theres no reason to turn down an immediate doubling of your money invested in the stock market, just because you think you need regular income.One of my pet peeves is people who think that real estate is passive income...really, its not, at least not relative to investments. Cashing dividend checks is way more passive than repairing a rental unit after evicting a tenant.Human: Im definitely aware that rentals are not passive. My brother has his real estate license, and has pursued rental housing as well. He has around 6 homes now, and he just outsourced his management to a property management service because he couldnt take it anymore. I definitely understand the problems.Im aiming for modest single family homes around the 55k - 150k region in my area. Nothing too crazy.  <response>: and like market returns, rental income is not guaranteed...expenses and vacancies could kill any performa business plan.its best to be diverse...hold cash, equities, and paid-for real-estate in your portfolio...that way you tolerate a downturn in either of these...and of course, your salary income is the horsepower for building your portfolio until you retire. 