<prompt> Human: Excepting some comments about how dumb I am in this thread. Ive been with my company for a bit over 5 years now and over the past year or so I have encountered some financial issues that required me to withdraw two separate loans from my 401k. I currently owe about 15 grand in 401k loans and have about 15k in cash in my 401k. Turns out it looks like Ill no longer be employed by this company soon and the rules of the 401k loans is that when you leave the company you are required to pay off the loan immediately. I definitely do not have 15 grand laying around. So my question is, is there anyway to get out of paying off this loan? Even assuming I get taxed largely for it without hurting my credit? Thanks guys.  <response>: Not going to hurt your credit, but its going to be treated as an early distribution, so youll owe regular taxes and penalties on the loan amount. 