<prompt> Human: Im currently 43, have a decent paying job, but have a huge amount of debit. My take home income is about 4k per month but between basic expenses and loan payments I still come out even or behind each month, and have very little or no cash left over so even small things end up on my credit cards. I have recently setup a budget and know that it will require a lot of diligence and patience on my part to correct a problem that Ive spent years creating. But, my question is this... should I suspend my contributions to my 401k to help pay off a credit card with a 21 APR? Im not talking about withdrawing cash, just suspending my contributions for 6 months to a year and using that to pay off the card. I contribute about 600month obviously pre-tax to the 401k and my employer matches another 50. My thinking is that in the short term this makes sense since I will be saving the difference in interest between the 401k and the high interest card. But Im worried that in the long term I will have lost the additional compounding of the contributions I skipped. Any input or advice would be helpful.  <response>: Contribute up to the match. Pay off debt, then contribute more if theres money left over. 