Leave the money for retiring to retire. Start another acocunt for your business endeavors. Be careful though, the vast majority of start up companies fail. I would know how much you were willing to risk, get your business plan, risk that preset amount, and kick ass. But leave your retirement fund for retiring

Whatever you do, don't use your 401k/Roth money (that is already invested) to start your own business. Those accounts are protected from most bankruptcy proceedings, unless they think you intentionally dumped large amounts in immediately preceeding bankruptcy.

Your plan to scale back on contributions and then figure out a way to invest in other avenues seems most prudent.

The government website, www.sba.gov has good info on small business stats.

Whatever you do, keep in mind that 50% of all businesses fail in the first 2 years, 70% in the first 5. Find yourself a great tax aversion CPA, and have as much cash available to fall back on if times get tough.

Good luck, working for yourself can be the best job you ever had, or the worst. I wish you luck.

I wouldn't suggest using your 401k as a tool otherwise you have to deal with heavy tax penalties when you take out the funds at 40. You are better off using the money from the Roth IRA as long as you use the contributed funds and not the gains from those funds. I suggest contribute to the 401k to the max to get the company match and just allocate the rest to a personal Roth IRA account.

I don't think I'd touch the 401K, but I might begin a personal brokerage account and begin dollar cost averaging some moderate risk growth no-load mutual funds. I'm not in position to recommend for or against index funds.
You might consider the soft real estate market as an investment strategy; that table will turn one day; there are still people buying homes, and more apartment dwellers will be looking for first homes when the market is right for them. Flipping can be risky, but financially rewarding. There are those who have made fortunes ( and those who lost them) doing that. ( Like The Donald)

I would put in only what would give you the maximum company match and invest the rest, if and only if you won't be tempted to find an excuse to use it before your stated purpose.

The reason I would invest the rest on my own is for taxes. If you plan on raiding your 401K, you will get a big tax bill. The IRS is going to want to collect on all the taxes you would have been paying all along. And quite often, a sum that size coming out of a 401K early can put you in a higher tax bracket for the year in which you withdrew the funds.

Whereas if you put the money away yourself, you lose the tax benefit every year, but that tax bill is spread out over 13 years, instead of at one fell swoop @ 40.

But the main reason is the fact that the year you take the money out early can put you in a higher tax bracket and it is a big chunk to pay all at once.

If you take any money out of your 401(k) plan you will have to pay income tax on it at whatever your highest marginal rate is plus 10% extra for early withdrawal. Congress intended retirement account money to provide for people in their old age, not used for speculative purposes so created an expensive incentive to leave it for later. If you want to go into business for yourself, put money in a private account in growth stocks that you can sell at capital gains rates when you need the money.