re: Anybody ever say "screw it" & cash out retirement while relatively young to pay off debt?

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Look, if you ignore the fact that all these other posters are dump and/or have a "friend" who has done something stupid, from a pure MATH standpoint, it's about comparing rate of return. I suspect I'm the only one here who has any kind of fund/PE background, because all I'm hearing from the down voters is: I know a guy who cashed out and bought a truck and now is screwed...The assumptions I make when answering your question are: 1)you're not an idiot and don't currently run a personal budget deficit, 2) you passed algebra 1 and and can do rudimentary math problems. It's a simply TMV problem. Instead of paying money on your debt at a high interest rate, pay it off with your IRA money and start putting the money you were paying on your debt towards your retirement. You will have more when you retire in the long run this way because math says so. It's so simple. Don't listen to these idiots. .

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The odds that someone that named himself bigtruckin works in hedge fund/PE is less than one-hundredth of a percent. If you're one of those to really beat the odds, hmu as I'd like a job.

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So forgo a 100% return to pay off debt that's at 5% or 10% or even 25%? That's the worst financial advice I've ever heard.

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LOL.

Imagine...

1) the match is 50%, not 100%, so it's a 50% "return"
2) An interest rate north of 28-30 percent (or more)
3) If you take the money needed to get the match and pay off the debt, it's done in a year, and then you can take both the min payment money, and the extra money that was going to the 401K originally, and put it into the 401K (so now you are contributing MORE after 1 year then you were)
4) If you don't redirect the money from the 401K to the loan payment, it will take you 4 years, instead of 1 to pay it off.

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1) the match is 50%, not 100%, so it's a 50% "return

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what?

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2) An interest rate north of 28-30 percent (or more)

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Add the 10% penalty to that.

I have utilized this strategy the past three years. I haven't contributed any to 401k and now have zero debt (minus mortgage) while paying my way through grad school (and supporting a family). Being unleveraged is the way to go.

I think you should withdraw it all and live large! You can always start over. If you die in two weeks from now, you will not have lived large yet.

I had a rollover IRA from a previous job with ~23k in it. I was ordered through divorce to transfer 15k of that to my ex wife. So I cashed out the rest of it to pay off the debts incurred by the divorce.

How dumb am I?