A means by which it is possible to make early withdrawals from an Individual Retirement Account without paying a penalty. The rules for substantially equal payments require that you receive payments over your life expectancy based on IRS charts (The Uniform Lifetime Table). Payments must continue for at least five years or until age 59½, whichever is later. Any variation from these rules will cause a 10 percent penalty on all distributions made before age 59½. After five years or age 59½, distributions can be changed as desired without penalty. See article "How does age affect distributions from my IRA?"
