<prompt> Human: So I know the standard response that you should never take from your retirement to pay something current, but I was wondering if there are exceptions?Ive been aggressively paying down my 6.55 student loans for almost 5 years while also saving for for early retirement. Im now finally at a level where I just noticed the contributions on my Roth are more than the remainder of my student loans. Im not entirely confident in the market beating 6.55 right now, so Ive been toying with the idea of pulling out enough contributions to pay off the loans finally! and then up my contributions to cover what I took out over the next couple years by dollar cost averaging. Anyone ever rob Peter to pay Paul like this?edit: Thank you all so much for the advice. This is a really incredible sub. Ill stick it out and keep paying off the loans as fast as possible. Ill look into the refi and see if its worth it as well.  <response>: I asked a similar question at the Motley Fool boards in 2001. The summation of the responses was Dont Do ItIn 2016, I am SO DAMN GLAD I LISTENED TO THEM because my Roth is now at a great level and those bills have long ago been paid off. Yes, it took longer than I wanted it to but its not worth losing the accumulated appreciation over time those funds have and will have. You cannot make up for removed contributions because there is a cap on how much you can contribute to your Roth yearly. There are no makeup exceptions once you remove the funds.Dont do it. Not even for the feeling of having a clean slate, right this very second. Said from someone who was in the same place but is in a much better place, now. Just keep doing what you are doing. Its working for future you. 