SmartAsset and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below. If you have a tax-deferred retirement savings account such as a 401(k), taking earlier or larger withdrawals than required won't directly reduce future mandated distributions. However, since pulling money out now will likely reduce the future balance of your 401(k), it could indirectly reduce the size of the compulsory distributions. That's because these obligatory withdrawals are calculated based on the a ...