Typically you cannot withdraw from a 401k if you are still working for that employer, so to even consider that it would likely have to be a 401k from a "former" employer.

Note that any past already taxed "contributions" can be withdrawn from a Roth IRA with no futher tax or penalty. But you would be giving up future potential compounded growth of that money. Any gain withdrawn would be subject to tax/penalty.

When IRA's first started many years ago, there were often projections that investing a certain amount per year from age 25 to 35 would gain as much, if not more, than someone investing the same per year from age 35 to 65. So if you get a later start, you have to sock more away. But without home payments maybe you can handle that.

Well, yeah. You are going to need that money. The general consensus is save it for when you NEED it, not just when you WANT it. If something were to happen and you couldn't work or something, you would really need that money and you'd be glad you had it. If I were you, I wouldn't do it. It's not there to make things easier or happen quicker; it's there to safeguard you in case you need it.

Look at it like this: you buy the house with the 401k. Then, like a year later, God forbid, you get in an accident and you can't work for months. Who will pay your bills? Your mortgage? Car payment? How will you get food? The 401k might not be enough to pay for all those things for months but it sure would help. You might say, "Well, I'd just sell my house." A lot of people thought that. Look at them now. The reason why you shouldn't touch it is because you don't know what will happen. You believe you have 30 more years to work but what if you don't?

If you withdraw your funds, you'll pay a total of 35% in add'l taxes. If you have a fixed rate open end mortgage, you can pay it down anytime without being penalized. On the first 15 years on a 30 year mortgage, you pay about 70% in interest. Think hard before you do it because once it's done, you can't take it back.

It is a benefit provided by the company you work for. You already defined what it is. Some employers match dollar for dollar of what you put in up to 6% of your salary. Some companies allow you to choose what investment vehicles you want and others just allow investments in the company's stock. The money is not taxable until you start to withdraw it.

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It is a retirement account. Typically it is set up by your employer. The employee puts a certain amount of salary into the account and the employer matches a certain amount of that amount…normally 6%. The contributions are divided up between stocks and other funds. You can lose money, you can make money…depends on how aggressive you go with your portfolio and how well it does.

Yes a 20% return is worth it. He should do it, but I doubt you have the facts correct. 20% 401k match is unheard of.

He can hardly go wrong when getting an instant 20% "profit" in the form of the company match.

And I would say he should not ignore stocks. They are on sale right now. But it could be all of three years before we see great returns or sooner. Realize we up over 30% since March. If compared to "safe" bonds paying less than 4% that is 7 to 8 years of the gains you get in bonds.

The rule of thumb these days says he should have 47% in stocks if you deduct his age from 110.

Good Luck

The company manages human resource benefit programs for small businesses that do not have, or do not wish to have a department that handles this in-house.
Therefore, this company uses it's expertise to provide retirement programs (401K is a retirement program), insurance programs, and probably a bevy of other services.

Finish school without debt is better than getting a student loan.

The most I would say is to go at least 80-90% equities.