Dually noted more people this year had to break glass in case of emergency on their retirement money.

I'm David Brancaccio in New York. The idea is to save retirement money for retirement, right?

But there are ways to use the money if you're in a jam,

and there's word the percentage of people making what are called hardship withdrawals

from their retirement accounts ticked up in the summer into fall

quarter the percentage rose to 2.3% this is new data from one company

Fidelity investments as marketplaces Henry Epp, those withdrawals can have long-term consequences.

Fidelity's report finds eviction, foreclosure, and medical bills are the most common reasons people

pulled money from their retirement savings.

But those who do are the ones who are most likely to need that cash later, says Theresa

Guilarducci, a professor of economics at the new school.

My research has shown that people who have taken out any kind of withdrawal over the course of their

work life are much more likely to be poor when they retire.

In the short term, however, pulling from retirement savings might be the prudent option for people,

says Angie Chen at Boston College's Center for Retirement Research.

The flip side that we're often missing

is that maybe that's preventing them

from building up credit card debt or other forms of that.

But the fact that some Americans are facing the choice

between taking on debt and drawing from their retirement

points to a bigger problem, that many workers are simply unable to save any money for emergencies.

I'm Henry E App for Marketplace.

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