Early Retirement Extreme Forums

I'm new to this forum, but I'm trying to find the best way to invest my money for growth without penalties for early withdrawels.
Right now I work full time and contribute 25% of my pay (tax free) into a 401k retirement plan. This plan has a 10% penalty if I withdraw it before the age of 59 and 1/2. For early retirement pension plans will be deferred for many years. Most IRAs and ROTH IRAs have tax penalties if you withdraw money before age 59.
How can I bypass this. I still want to build a nest egg in a 401k, but I want to divert money to a plan that I can use for early retirement. I'd prefer not to do stocks or real estate. Savings accounts and CDs don't have nearly as good of a return as my 401k plan will after many years of compound interest.
I'm 25 right now and would love to retire by the time I'm 27 (with a spouse still working). Right now I have no debt and all my extra money is etiehr put in a CD/savings account (for emergency planning) and my mortgage which I'm trying to pay off in 3 years. I have a good savings for emergencies to last me a year at my current spend rate before I would need to withdrawl from a separate account. (this assumes I still have a mortgage payment... I'd need considerably less money when I'm not putting 50% of my take home pay towards that)
What options are available for this other than taking penalties on my 401k until I reach age 59 1/2 or a CD/savings account?
I'd like an option where I could make money, put money in, and withdrawel money when needed. plus I'm looking for a way to stock money away after taxes.

Probably covered several times in the forum... look up roth pipeline and/or 72t withdrawals for 401k/IRA.

Though I am aware of the 72t withdrawals I am hoping to avoid using them for as long as possible or not at all in order to take advantage of compounding interest as long as possible without removing money from it.
I'm more interested in other options outside of 401k plans that won't involve as much redtape. I would like to save my 401k for when I turn 59.5 and use another method before then. I am just unaware of other ways to save instead of the 401k.

There aren't any secret early retirement tax deferred options beyond 401k/IRA.
You might be able to pick up a little more with an HSA or something - but the bulk of your savings will likely be taxable. You can minimize the taxes you'll pay through your investment choices, but that's about it.
The good news is that you won't be paying much in taxes for very long if you can manage to get there by 27. When you stop having much earned income - you stop paying much in taxes.

If you're willing to look beyond equities investment accounts, real estate and muni bonds are traditional investments that have tax advantages.
However, your best tax hedge is what John Galt keeps mentioning...low AGI post ERE. (27, wow, nice!)

Actually, a Roth IRA could be helpful, as you can pull your initial principle out without penalty at any time. So, let's say it takes you 10 years to ERE and you are able to put $5,500 a year in a Roth IRA. This would mean you have $55k you could pull out at any time and leave in the investment gains. Maybe not perfect, but it would help.

The only way I know of to put pretax money in and get tax-free money out is an HSA, and that's only for qualified expenses (at your age).
Using after-tax money for tax-free or tax-deferred gains is a bit easier:

Roth - in the way Chad mentioned
Muni Bonds - free of federal tax and perhaps state tax
Series I Bonds - Free of state tax, federal tax-deferred; interest will compound tax-free. Cash these out after you drop your tax bracket for the most benefit.
MLPs - distributions are usually shielded from tax completely. However, when you sell, you will likely need to pay tax on some of the distributions as ordinary income. So, like above, wait until your tax bracket drops if you're going to sell.

I shall have to read up on Roth's then.. I've heard about being able to withdraw what you put in, but I'm always afraid of redtape or messing up a step.
Not sure what MLPs are. Well look into.
Thanks for all the insight guys!

MLP = Master Limited Partnership. They are a tax construct available only in the USA.