<prompt> Human: My company that I have been with for 9 years is closing. I am a full time student, married, and have a child. I graduate in June and will be licensed by August, and start my own business. We have a lot of credit card debt and we have been steadily paying 20,000 but now with me losing my job we are in a pickle. I havent been able to find anything yet, and the doors close May 28th. My husband has a 35,000 401k we have been considering cashing out and paying off our debt just to take the stress off of us since we could live comfortably off of his income without these extra payments. I will qualify for unemployment but it is barely enough to cover daycare and I go to school Monday through Friday, so I will be paying for the full week until I graduate June 30th. Has anyone done this? Any words of advice? We have worked so hard after getting into this debt to be in a good spot and able to start making progress on them and now I am not sure what to do.  <response>: Very bad idea. Youd pay a 10 early withdrawal penalty plus income taxes on the withdrawal. 