conversation: User (mt185): "I currently have a 457b as one of my retirement accounts and am becoming fairly bored with having only mutual funds as my retirement savings. Is there any way to use some of the money from this account to purchase stocks without paying a penalty or taxes on the money?"
  Self: "if your genuinely interested in investing in individual stocks as a hobby I will answer your question. 527 b are deffered compensation. This means you can take your compensation at any time after and it will be taxed as current income. There is usually no penalty for early withdrawal of funds and you could technically withdraw x,xxx dollars and invest it yourself for fun in a taxable investment account. Or do what I do and make model portfolios on Google finance.. ( a little less risky ;-))"
  