<prompt> Human: So I left my job and received a letter from vangaurd. I have about 2k in my 401k which will not roll over to my new job. Vangaurd said I can with draw the money or let it roll into a roth ira. My question is the roth ira worth leaving 2k in? Or am I better off paying of my cc debt with the 2k? I am 21 years old and very unsure about iras and 401ks. I have 1200 in credit card debt at 20.  <response>: Its almost never worth it to make an early withdrawal from a retirement account due to the 10 penalty in addition to paying income taxes on the withdrawn amount.Your best choice would be to roll the assets into a Traditional IRA. Vanguard is a great brokerage that offers the low cost index funds we typically recommend, so you can have them do an intra-brokerage rollover.Once you roll your assets over to a Traditional IRA, you can consider converting those assets to a Roth IRA. You will have to pay taxes on the converted amount if you do this, but then you wont pay taxes on it when you retire and start making withdrawals. Theres a Roth vs. Traditional topic in the subreddit FAQ if you want to explore this topic more. It isnt worth it in 100 of cases, so make sure you consider it carefully. 