The drawbacks

One of the best strategies to invest for retirement involves three steps: Saving money on a regular basis, socking it away in a diversified fund with appreciation potential, then leaving it alone.

Accounts that can grow undisturbed for decades, especially on a tax-deferred or tax-free basis, stand a great chance of ballooning into something really big.

But there likely will come times when you’re short on cash, and you gaze over at your retirement balance like a hungry lion scoping out a herd of wildebeest.

If that’s the case, you have plenty of company. About one in six workers with 401(k) balances, 17 percent, had loans outstanding on their accounts at the end of 2016, said the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund trade organization, in a new report. The percentage has been rising gradually in recent years — no surprise, given the general indebtedness of many Americans.

Taking out retirement-account loans isn’t something to consider lightly.

Among the drawbacks: You can’t deduct the interest paid, the funds won’t appreciate while out on loan and your regular cash flow will suffer because you repay the amount from your paycheck. There also might be modest fees or other restrictions, depending on the terms of your employer’s 401(k) plan.

Plus, your employer might restrict