Chris, thanks for reading and leaving a comment. Yes, good points and thanks for sharing. There are some ways to get a bit more flexible with tax-advantaged accounts as you mention, but they are limited (contribution limits, salary caps for Roth IRA, withdrawl rules, etc). None of them are very useful to retire at age 45, for example.

I wouldn’t have been able to build up the wealth I have and use it the way I plan to if I only used these accounts. They serve a role, but they have limits.