>I’m worried that I’m screwing myself out of early retirement by focusing so much on an account I can’t touch until later in life anyway.
You have to save for regular retirement before you can save for early retirement. Saving retirement money in non-tax-advantaged accounts when you have tax-advantaged space available will not forward your goal of early retirement.
There are many ways to access money from a 401k during early retirement as long as you do some planning. The tax benefits are quite compelling which is why this subreddit generally recommends contributing to tax advantaged accounts before taxable ones. For example, roth conversion ladders (https://www.investopedia.com/how-roth-conversion-ladder-works-5214808), or SEPP withdrawls. There are other ways too.
>I’m worried that I’m screwing myself out of early retirement by focusing so much on an account I can’t touch until later in life anyway. You have to save for regular retirement before you can save for early retirement. Saving retirement money in non-tax-advantaged accounts when you have tax-advantaged space available will not forward your goal of early retirement.
There are many ways to access money from a 401k during early retirement as long as you do some planning. The tax benefits are quite compelling which is why this subreddit generally recommends contributing to tax advantaged accounts before taxable ones. For example, roth conversion ladders (https://www.investopedia.com/how-roth-conversion-ladder-works-5214808), or SEPP withdrawls. There are other ways too.