<prompt> Human: Hey everyone, let me know if Im posting in the wrong place.I should mention the main thing keeping me at this dead end, life sucking, florescent lighting, straight from Office Space job thats slowly killing me inside is some debt I incurred after getting in a car accident and having less than adequate insurance. I still have 5,000.00 in debt to pay, and Im living month to month just barely feeding myself. Im pretty good on my budget but I know if I try to go to school, work part time, and pay off this debt at the same time the chances that Ill mess it up are huge and Ill have wasted more money on student loans or default on this debt. I have more than 15,000.00 in my 401K right now maxin out my company matching, and a friend suggested that I could use some of it to pay my debt off, go back to school, finally get the degree I want and work in a job that I enjoy instead of one that makes me so fuckin sad, and build up my retirement again there. Everything Ive ever heard about withdrawing from a 401K is terrible, I know Ill get taxed like crazy. Is it worth it? Ive been waiting nearly four years to go back to school because of this debt, and I really feel like my life is on hold while my soul is sucked out through my butthole. Any advice would be appreciated. It doesnt help that Ive always purposefully kept myself ignorant about the process of withdrawing from my retirement account because I didnt want the temptation.  <response>: Dont do it. If you pull out the entire 15,000 you will first be hit with 1,500 in penalty. Then it will be treated as taxable income, so you will pay whatever your marginal tax rate is, say 15? Also you will have to pay applicable state taxes, so you will end up with maybe 11,000, maybe less.You owe 5K, so now you are down to 6K left. Will that buy you the schooling you need plus living expenses while you study? Probably not.Rather, I would suggest looking for other opportunities within your company, or just looking for a new job. Too often I read about someone who went back to school, took on a bunch of debt, then either still didnt like their options or worse yet, couldnt find a job in their new field.Before going back to school I would suggest that you be very sure you are not just doing it to get away from your current job, but that you really want to work at whatever you go back to study and that it will provide you the kinds of opportunities you want. 