SDIRA - I can't pay myself, correct?

[Olga Huxoll]

Hi everybody,

I am new to this forum and real estate in general. I am trying to figure out what I can do with my 401K from a previous employer. I know I can roll it over into an SDIRA account. However, if I understand this correctly, I can't take any distributions from this account without a penalty, just like with 401K.

I can see how this might work if I have a job and I am simply using real estate as a retirement planning tool. But I am unemployed and would like to do both - create income and do long-term investing for retirement. So my understanding is that I can't do that with SDIRA. Sounds like that option work for those who already have income coming and are using SDIRA to grow their retirement funds. 

Am I understanding this correctly?

Thanks!