<prompt> Human: Normally I wouldnt consider touching my 401k but my company is changing their retirement plan to a pension plan and getting rid of the 401k.I have 71k in my 401k now and have the option of cashing out or rolling into an IRA. Obviously I dont want to cash out entirely, but was considering taking about 20k out to pay off all my revolving debt car loan, credit card, etc which comes to about 600 a month.Since I will have a pension when I retire, I am not too concerned with the 401k although the extra money will be nice at retirement. I am 33 and still have plenty of time to put into the IRA.I have a stay at home wife with kids and money has been extremely tight lately. Taking the 401k withdrawal would pay off all debt and free up at least 600 a month for other things.I am aware of the penalties and taxes that come with withdrawing early 40? but that money is very tempting for the reasons listed above.Talk me out of it!  <response>: 71,000 invested in the market for the next 30 years could be worth half a million dollars for you at retirement. To get 20k cash out of it youd need to withdraw close to 40k to cover taxes and penalties. The remaining 31k might grow to about 235k given the same assumptions. Its not worth saving a thousand dollars or two of interest at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars at retirement. Worse, this doesnt really fix your spending problem that got you in this situation in the first place. It feels like free money to bail you out, so you are unlikely to change your habits, and it may set a precedent for you to raid your retirement again and again. 