We are thinking about withdrawing some funds from my husband's 401k. We are drowning in credit card debt and can not see our way out. He's 51 years old but probably won't be able to retire at 65 anyway. My thinking is that we pay off all card debt and with the money that would go for monthly payments, we can make extra principle payments on our home to try and have it paid for when he does retire. We've considered bankruptcy, but have had excellent credit for more than 30 yrs and we really don't want to have to ruin it at our ages. However, every month gets harder and harder to make these payments. In your opinion, would it benefit us to get rid of the card interest,versus the tax and penalty on the 401K?

need to look at total income situation. Not sure what type of mortgage you have but, paying interest only on mortgage instead of apply principal might make sense especially with market values low. Use that money to accelerate credit cards. 401k option not bad if taken out as loan to pay yourself. But don't want to take out so much where you leave yourself with out any emergency money. If you have good rate on mortgage consider line of credit benefit is could be deductable since mortgage interest and let 401k work for you. Market doing very well at this time. I see people accelerating mortgage and later having to refi or use reverse mortgage to survive. You have time to accumulate assets and pay down your debt. Extra income may be solution? BK only if situation past the point of no return. How much debt are you talking about vs income?

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Originally Posted by rubypb

We are thinking about withdrawing some funds from my husband's 401k. We are drowning in credit card debt and can not see our way out. He's 51 years old but probably won't be able to retire at 65 anyway. My thinking is that we pay off all card debt and with the money that would go for monthly payments, we can make extra principle payments on our home to try and have it paid for when he does retire. We've considered bankruptcy, but have had excellent credit for more than 30 yrs and we really don't want to have to ruin it at our ages. However, every month gets harder and harder to make these payments. In your opinion, would it benefit us to get rid of the card interest,versus the tax and penalty on the 401K?

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Pay off that debt! Number crunching will only prolong the agony. For the record, I am not a financial planner. I am; however, a debt-free retiree that sleeps very well at night.

Yes. If you have money available from a 401, it will be much cheaper to pay the penalty on that instead of paying interest on those damn credit cards, Word of advice,, GET RID OF THOSE CARDS once they are paid off and DO NOT get new ones. If anything comes up(unexpected expenses) use the equity in your home,, not someone else's money. Good Luck.