I have not heard of this, but it's possible. A distribution from a retirement plan costs money, and your plan may not be designed to issue monthly payments. What you might consider as an alternative is to talk to a bank or credit union about opening up a 'roll over IRA' which would get your money out of the plan, enable you to invest it how you want, and take distributions on a monthly basis.

The tax laws for retirement plans change when you turn 59 1/2 years old, and penalties for taking money out disappear. You might want to take out two years worth of money right now, even if you have to pay taxes on it, and then take more out later to avoid the penalties. You might want to talk to a tax advisor or financial advisor to help you through the jumble of laws and procedures.

By the way, you would receive a total of $20,000, which might be reduced by tax withholding to $16,000. How much you want to receive monthly depends on how long you expect to live off this account. If you only need to live on this for 8 months, that's $2,000 per month. But you might want to stretch this out longer, depending on your financial situation.