<prompt> Human: So heres my question and Ill try to be as brief as possible. I have a 401k from an old job that has about 13k in it. There is no new money being contributed as I am a 1099 employee now so the money is basically just sitting there. I have a really good paying job now, but that hasnt always been the case. My wife and I have some credit card debt that we would love to get out from under. Cashing this out would absolutely give me the opportunity to pay off all of this debt at once, let me start saving again, and honestly just relieve a lot of stress moving forward. Im 32 and I know that this amount of debt probably like 10k isnt anything crazy, but definitely something that weighs on me a lot. Just feels like in the long run 13k isnt that much money to sacrifice right now to ease quite a bit of stress. I know that I would have to pay a penalty and it would be taxable income for the year. We also have two young kids, a mortgage, car payments, and a lot of student loan debt just had to go to private school and grad school haha. Edit - Thanks everyone for your suggestion. Just getting others insight is so helpful. I appreciate you all.  <response>: just put your shoulder to the wheel and pay this 10k without pissing away your account?its a bad idea, and your 401 account is should be still invested and working for you 