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I believe the general idea is to max it if you can. If you can't, put whatever you can, and forego luxuries like vacations until you can.

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Right, so you max your 401k instead of diversifying a portion into something more liquid, and when something happens before 55 you have to take a major bite out of it just to access that money?

That would be what an emergency fund is for, in traditional financial literature. If you mean something more tragic, that's what insurance and other products are for. Even then, 401ks have exceptions for something like total disability that allows early withdrawals without penalty.

If you just mean "I want my money early", well... there's lots of ways to access retirement account money early without penalty with some planning.

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