Roth IRAs define premature or early withdrawals (just on earnings, remember) in two ways. One has to do with your age — if you're 59½ years old. (As with traditional IRAs, this is the magic threshold at which you can start withdrawing.) The other has to do with the account's age — the "5-year rule." The Roth 5-year rule states that, for earnings to be withdrawn tax-free, a Roth account has to be at least five years old. That is, it has to have been five years since the first contribution was made to it.