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J
Lv 6
J asked in Business & FinancePersonal Finance · 7 years ago

Should I withdraw my old 401k's to pay off debt?

I currently have approximately $9,000 in two old 401k's through Fidelity and John Hancock from previous jobs. My current job has a 401a plan (an alternative to social security; we and our employer pay into the account instead of paying social security taxes) where I can take out a loan against the account and pay it back with a good interest rate. The interest paid goes back into the account.

I currently have about $12,000 in credit card debt that I want to get rid of. The 401a account has about $20,000 in it. I am allowed to withdraw a loan of about $9,000 to pay towards that debt. The payments for this loan come directly out of my paycheck and can have a payoff period of about 36-60 months.

I have a few options and I'm trying to figure out which one is best. Which one do you think is the best option?

1) Cash out my old 401k's and put them towards my credit card debt, then take a smaller loan out of my 401a to pay off the rest. My question with this would be what kind of immediate taxes would I need to pay and what taxes would I pay next year?

2) Roll the 401k's into the 401a and take a large loan against it to pay off the debt.

3) Do nothing and pay off the debt normally (which will take a long time in our financial situation).

Additional info: I'm 27 years old, can retire with a decent pension at 53, and will be contributing to a deferred comp plan after deciding on one of the options. Pre-tax income is around $115,000 filing jointly with my wife.

Update:

Also, while we would like to just workout our budget to pay this off normally, we have several other sources of debt; mortgage, car loans and the worst of the bunch; student loans. Student loans take the largest chunk of income after mortgage. Budgeting this out isn't very feasible.

Update 2:

Using a loan calculator for the $12,000 and interest rate up to 8% (though I think it's less for the actual loan), I could afford the payments with plans from 3-5 years, with 3 years obviously being more difficult to budget.

1 Answer

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  • ?
    Lv 7
    7 years ago

    if you cash out the old 401k, you are going to net a lot less than the 9k you have in there, first there is a 10% early withdrawal penalty then they generally withhold 25% for taxes. you would be luck to get 6k, leaving you with 6k in cc debt. If you roll the 401ks into the 401a can you afford the payments? if so I would chose that option, you would still have the money in a fund that will generate income, I understand the student loans take a chunk out of your income but you really should pay off the CC and get rid of them

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