401k or not?

[Peter Whitaker]

Okay, I'm mostly looking for reassurance that my plan is well thought out and I'm not making a bad decision. I am 20 years old right now in the Navy and I'm certain that buy and hold real estate is in my future. so here is my predicament. since day one in the Navy I have been putting $300 per month into the military version of a 401k, called TSP. I don't get and company match on it and the account now has about $6,000. By the time my contract is up this amount should be somewhere in the range of 22,000-25,000, plenty to fund my first real estate acquisition after the Navy. What i want to do is withdraw the $6,000 (its roth so I shouldn't take much of a hit from taxes), roll it into a 3 year CD and continue the $300 per month saving. this way the money will be safe from the stock market and more accessible when the time comes to purchase real estate. Me and my wife plan on using a VA loan to buy a multifamily to live in virtually free, and use this nest egg to purchase another multi or single family. This way we should be able to own 2 Cash flowing properties within a relatively short time (6 mo. or so) after I'm out of the Navy.