An individual retirement account is an investment account designed to be used after you have retired from your full-time employment. Cashing in an IRA can be done at any point, but the tax benefits are the greatest if you wait until you are at least age 59.5 years old. Otherwise, a large portion of your money is eaten up with income taxes. E-trade is an online investment firm that has made it exceedingly simple to cash in on your IRA in several ways.

Fill out a Form, Get a Check

One of the most secure and still most popular ways of cashing in your IRA is to simply fill out a form that E-trade has available and receive a check. E-trade has a form linked to the IRA account online so that all you have to do is log into your account, fill in a bit of information on the cash you are requesting from your IRA account and click "Submit." The request form is sent to the investment company, approved based on the amount of cash you requested compared to the availability of funds, and then a check is written to you from E-trade. Since the check is mailed to you, it could take up to two weeks before you will see any of your money from the IRA account. And don't forget you will still owe taxes on the money once you receive it.

Request Direct Deposit

Much like the online check form, a direct deposit slip is available to fill out and send in requesting cash out of an IRA. This method is much faster than the check method, because the direct deposit can be in your account in as little as a week. Simply visit your account options, choose request funds and then click Direct Deposit. Select or enter the account number you would like the funds deposited into and then click submit. The request will be processed as quickly as possible, and the funds transferred automatically.

Write Checks

If you are old enough to begin capitalizing on your IRA, you can have E-trade set your account up so you can write checks out of the funds. With IRA checks, the process is the same as if you were writing checks for a regular checking account. Simply write a check to a vendor or even to yourself or "Cash," and use them as normal checks. This allows you to use your money from the IRA account as if it were cash, yet you are not carrying around a large sum of money which could be lost or stolen. You can also get a debit card set up to be used along with the checks.

Source:

E-trade.com: Retirement

More Information:

E-trade: IRA Application