Last week, I explained how my wife and I can use a Roth conversion ladder to access retirement savings before age 59½ without paying the 10% early withdrawal penalty. The downside? You have to wait five years before touching the converted money. Then I discovered another early retirement income strategy that skips the waiting period entirely. With Rule 72(t), you can begin withdrawing money directly from a traditional IRA immediately—without converting anything to a Roth IRA