Hacker News Reader

He wasn't making that much money, and some of it had to be in hard to reach places. (401Ks?) So even if he had 100K, how long will it last when you're travelling internationally and staying in expensive hotels?

Being a whistleblower doesn't excuse you from having to work for a living. I hope he's able to get decent employment.

View on HN

And cashing out your 401k while holding a Top Secret clearance sounds like a major red flag. If he did cash it out, I wonder if he stuck around to pay the tax penalties for doing so?

401k administrators are required to discount any 401k payout by an estimate of the amount of tax you would owe including the 10% penalty. So if you cashed out $100,000 you'd likely only received a check for about $60,000. The rest would go directly to the IRS and if that made you pay too much you could get your refund the following year.

The IRS always get paid.

he could also take a loan from his 401k

They don't allow you to loan out >50% of your 401k.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com