A taxing problem for middle-class America: Why are we penalizing people in need?

For many decades, middle-class Americans have relied on investing in private retirement programs to supplement Social Security income and prepare for retirement. Recently, more of those same middle-class Americans have had to withdraw from those accounts early, forcing them to pay exuberant fines and taxes. 

For the last 20 years, I have been advising people not to take early distributions on their retirement accounts unless absolutely necessary — to safeguard their retirements. For many middle-class earners, however, these measures do not dissuade them; they just penalize them. 

To read the full article from Michael Markey, click here.