Do you intend on taking any college courses or will you be paying for your health insurance?
If you roll the funds over to an IRA first before taking withdrawals there are more exceptions to the 10% penalty tax available if you take the distribution from the IRA rather than taking it directly from the 401(k). For example, some of the IRA exceptions to the penalty are for distributions for unreimbursed medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI), for premiums that you paid for medical insurance if you collected unemployment compensation and meet certain requirements, for a first-time home purchase up to $10,000, and to pay higher educational expenses. Other exceptions are described in the IRS link below:
See pages 53 - 54 - http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590.pdf
You would obtain the forms from your company or the investment provider that is administering the plan. You will need to first open a traditional IRA account at a bank, brokerage firm, or mutual fund company. Once that account is established you would enter the IRA trustee's name and your account # and any other required information on the 401(k) withdrawal form in the "Direct Rollover" section.
Also, by rolling over you will have the flexibility of spreading the withdrawals over 2 or more years (as needed) which could possibly reduce your overall cumulative taxes depending on your income in each year.
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