<prompt> Human: 26M Im going back to school full-time in January and will no longer be working at my full-time job. I have roughly 5k in a 401k that seems to be losing money at the moment. Each monthly statement it goes down nearly 60 dollars. I am only contributing the matched 3 by my employer. The money is fully vested after one year with the company and Im approaching the end of my second year.Due to scheduling issues I will not be able to continue to work at this night-shift factory job. I doubt I will be able to find a part-time job between January and March due to holiday workers being released. I will have enough in savings by December to cover January, February, and March expenses at roughly 800 a month. CC Debt 4K 18.9 Savings 2.4K Allocated for living expenses for J-M 401k 5k Rent 250 Utilities 75 Car and Health Insurance 200 Gas 150 Food 225 CC Minimum 150 not included in monthly budget as I typically pay much more than the minimumSeeing as how my earnings will drop from 36k a year to less than 12k most likely, does it make financial sense to withdraw from my 401k to pay off my credit card debt and reduce my stress levels in general?What kind of penalties are involved with early withdrawal?Edit 1: Assume that savings is non-existent as it can not be reallocated for CC-debt. It must be used for living expenses from January through March until a part-time job is found.Edit 2: Going to keep the money in a 401k, look into better portfolio options, pay a bit more than the monthly on the credit card debt, and keep afloat during my last year of school. If anyone wants to give me a few grand that would be cool too. :Thanks for the advice.  <response>: If you can avoid it I would not withdraw money from your 401K to pay off the credit card debt. You will have to pay a 10 penalty in addition to the extra federal taxes associated from the extra income. You have to ask yourself if its worth it to pay that penalty and the regular taxes or if it makes more sense to pay down the credit card over time and pay some interest instead. 4K credit card debt at 18.9 interest equates to about 750 per a year in compound interest assuming you only pay the interest and dont apply anything to the principal. Thats 63 dollars a month, so anything you apply on top of that will go toward principal and reducing your credit card debt.Still if you are worried about the 401K taking a dump regarding value, most 401ks allow you to shift your assets around every once in awhile. Long term its better to leave the 401K money where its at and let it grow tax deferred. 