changes, home purchases, postsecondary educa- tion, and the birth of a child). Our data come from the 2004 Survey of Income and Program

We find that early withdrawals are infrequent but represent a significant loss to retirement savings. However, withdrawals are strongly cor-related with adverse events such as unemploy-ment and the onset of poor health, as well as family investments such as primary home pur-chases. We estimate that about 40 percent of retire-ment savings losses are associated with these types of events and another 10 percent of leakage is associated with job changes. Unfortunately, more vulnerable individuals, especially those with no other financial assets and those with less education, not only have the least amount of sav-ings in retirement accounts, but also the highest withdrawal rates. This combination helps explain why these groups typically end up with little else than Social Security in retirement. The results highlight the need to strengthen our retirement and general savings policies. Early Withdrawal Rules IRAs and 401(k)s now hold most retirement assets outside of Social Security, with balances exceeding $6 trillion in 2009 (Butrica and Issa 2010).3 These assets will continue to grow, especially as private-sector employers continue to shift from traditional defined benefit pension plans to 401(k) plans. Individual retirement savings accounts are more susceptible to leakage than the traditional defined benefit plans, despite efforts by employers and the federal government to discourage early with-drawals. Employees usually can withdraw funds from their 401(k)s when significant financial needs arise or cash out their plans when they leave their jobs. Access to IRA balances is easier. Most employer plans allow workers to with-draw savings to meet pressing financial needs (principal home purchase, unreimbursed medical costs, postsecondary school tuition, or preventio