<prompt> Human: Im 37 and honestly never been very responsible with money. Ive come to realize that my situation needs to change. My wife and I spent the last two years working on our finances and have recently been able to buy our first house after too many years of throwing money away on rent. Weve worked hard to get where we are and now we are trying to get the majority of our debt paid off.I only have about 4k in my 401kdivorce, poor decisions, etc.. I also have about 1300 in credit card debt that Id like to pay off. The interest rate is much better on the 401k loan About 23 vs 5 and all that interest would go back to myself but Im not sure how much of a hit I would take in lost market gains.Im not really able to pay much more than the minimum payment on the cards and Im a little tired of seeing almost half of that payment get charged back in interest every month.In addition to the weekly pre-tax payment for the 401k loan I would also dedicate what Im paying on the cards each month back to it to pay it off sooner. Im not too worried about frivolously charging them back up because Ive had them near maxed out so long I dont even think about having them. Theyve already been tossed in a drawer with the intent of having them for emergencies in the event that we can ever get them paid off.So is this a good idea or should I keep plugging away as I have been?  <response>: I read the title, immediately said no. I read your post and the answer is still no.If you dont want the interest, get a new card and do a balance transfer if you can.Here are the issues with taking out this loan and trust me, I took one out myself because I had an emergency.First of all, there are no taxes so whoever is telling you about them is wrong. You pay taxes if you take money out rather than getting a loan.Secondly, unless you have an awesome company, you can only take out half of your vested balance so presuming you are 100 vested, you can only take out 2k.Thirdly, if you dont work at that company for any reason - whether termination, layoff, or you quite - 100 of that money and interest is due back within 30 days.Fourthly, when you have money in a 401k, it grows via investments so since your balance will go down, that money wont be making any gains. Its not much but considering compound interest, youre going to be losing out on tens of thousands of dollars of gains by the time you retire.Fifthly, the amount of interest youre paying is relatively trivial so get another card and do a balance transfer or just focus on paying it off for a few months.Sixthly, when you get a 401k loan, you get terms and you only have 2 options: continue paying it off which is likely going to be a 10-year loan or you pay it off in full. Unlike all other types of debt, you cannot prepay a 401k loan. Pay the terms or pay off are your only options.However, something you said bothers me. You said: have recently been able to buy our first house And youre worried about a 1300 debt to the point of raiding your retirement? If this is truly the case then you should not have bought a house because youre unprepared in case you need a new roof or if you have a flood. 