<prompt> Human: So as the title says, I had the bright idea the other day to cash out the 14,000 I have in my rollover IRA to pay off my credit cards. I set it up, told it to take out 10 federal taxes and 10 state taxes just to be safe. I still have a separate 401k with a 4,000 balance that I wasnt going to touch.Today I thought better of it. i.e. Wow, that was stupid. I called Fidelity and they were luckily still able to cancel the pending disbursement to my bank and confirmed I wont get a tax hit. They told me I will have to repurchase any stocks or mutual funds I had sold since the sales already went through. Thats fine, Im sure I will lose some fees, but at least I wont lose the over 3,000 in tax hits.I was just so tired of looking at my 14,000 in credit card debt and feeling like I get nowhere with paying it off even though I throw hundreds of dollars, sometimes up to 1,500 a month at the balance. It was an impulsive decision and Im glad I was able to cancel it. My question is, is something like this EVER a good idea? Under what circumstances would it be acceptable to withdraw from your retirement funds, other than retirement? I am 34, if that matters.  <response>: I was just so tired of looking at my 14,000 in credit card debt and feeling like I get nowhere with paying it off even though I throw hundreds of dollars, sometimes up to 1,500 a month at the balanceIf you were throwing 1500 a month at with any regularity, you would have it paid off pretty quickly. So I am guessing that sometimes means this one time I remember quite clearly but is very unusual My question is, is something like this EVER a good idea?Yes, it can be a good idea. The higher the cc interest rate and the longer it will take you to pay off the card on your current payment plan, the more it makes sense to do this. The 10 penalty for cashing out is a one-time thing, but the high interest rate on cc will continue until you pay it off. So, the longer it takes to pay off, the more likely the one-time 10 penalty is to be worth it.People like to talk about the taxes, but those are often a wash. The taxes other than the 10 penalty you have to pay when you cash out are also taxes you re-gain when you start rebuilding your 401k using the cash flow you gained by no longer having a credit card payment. Exceptions to this would be if cashing out increases your income enough to push into a higher tax bracket than you will be in as you rebuild your retirement savings. Or if you are already maxing out your 401k contributions, and therefore cant rebuild beyond that by also contributing the money that used to go to cc payments.But what if you dont have the self-control to use your former cc payments to rebuild your retirement savings and instead spend that free money on other transient stuff? Then, it is a bad idea. 