Is it smart to use savings / 401 to payoff bills???

[pontevecchio]

Hopefully people realize the OP was in 2009. Maybe, just maybe any more replies would be redundant.?

[Revelate]

---

@pontevecchio wrote:

Hopefully people realize the OP was in 2009. Maybe, just maybe any more replies would be redundant.?

---

Maybe, but it's a new board without many threads, and if the information can help someone else, I at least don't have any issue with it's being necroed in this case for future generations of forumites... though I agree the OP likely isn't coming back on this one as she's been gone for nearly 4 years.

[vanitybag]

Just joined and am a new member.  I am looking for the correct place to talk about this.  I am 63 and retired.  Receiving SS checks and not much else.  My DW is 60 1/2 and still working  Last year when she was 59 1/2 we took 30K out of her 401k to pay off our CCs.  We are utilizing what the CRs say is 0%.  And the cards are hovering around the sock drawer.

We did not borry the money from the 401k.  We withdrew it.  No penalty.  Our CSs are pretty good.  Did we do something wrong????

BoA World Points 1000/ BoAmericard 9700/ Citicard MC 8900/ BoA Rewards7500/ AmexBlue 1800/ Target Visa 200/ Catherine's1700

EQ: 800

EXP: 807

SW FICO: 783

CK: 722

Her new Discover (EQ) 811

GOAL: Life among the 800's  LOL  getting and keeping good credit and being rewarded for it.

[wallyworld123]

---

@vanitybag wrote:

Just joined and am a new member.  I am looking for the correct place to talk about this.  I am 63 and retired.  Receiving SS checks and not much else.  My DW is 60 1/2 and still working  Last year when she was 59 1/2 we took 30K out of her 401k to pay off our CCs.  We are utilizing what the CRs say is 0%.  And the cards are hovering around the sock drawer.

We did not borry the money from the 401k.  We withdrew it.  No penalty.  Our CSs are pretty good.  Did we do something wrong????

BoA World Points 1000/ BoAmericard 9700/ Citicard MC 8900/ BoA Rewards7500/ AmexBlue 1800/ Target Visa 200/ Catherine's1700

EQ: 800

EXP: 807

SW FICO: 783

CK: 722

Her new Discover (EQ) 811

GOAL: Life among the 800's  LOL  getting and keeping good credit and being rewarded for it.

---

Hello and welcome to the forum, you may want to watch the suze orman show i personally watch her show every saturday at 8:00 p.m. and i hear suze orman say many times do not touch, withdraw, deplete your 401k by any means necessary especially to pay credit card debt off. Yes suze would say you did something wrong. Please watch her show. 

[vanitybag]

Hello and welcome to the forum, you may want to watch the suze orman show i personally watch her show every saturday at 8:00 p.m. and i hear suze orman say many times do not touch, withdraw, deplete your 401k by any means necessary especially to pay credit card debt off. Yes suze would say you did something wrong. Please watch her show. 

I have seen her show and understood her to mean don't break open the 401K BEFORE Retirement so u don't cheat urself out of ur future funds.  But I thought since I'm IN retitement the 30K debt we had over our heads was costing us more in interest to the CCCs than what we were making in our 401K investments. 

Thought her main push was not accruing penalties, which we didn't.   :    Thanks for replying.

BoA World Points 1000/ BoAmericard 9700/ Citicard MC 8900/ BoA Rewards7500/ AmexBlue 1800/ Target Visa 200/ Catherine's1700  AU on Discover 8500

EQ: 800

EXP: 807

SW FICO: 783

CK: 722

Her new Discover (EQ) 811

GOAL: Life among the 800's  LOL  getting and keeping good credit and being rewarded for it.

[wallyworld123]

---

@vanitybag wrote:

Hello and welcome to the forum, you may want to watch the suze orman show i personally watch her show every saturday at 8:00 p.m. and i hear suze orman say many times do not touch, withdraw, deplete your 401k by any means necessary especially to pay credit card debt off. Yes suze would say you did something wrong. Please watch her show. 

I have seen her show and understood her to mean don't break open the 401K BEFORE Retirement so u don't cheat urself out of ur future funds.  But I thought since I'm IN retitement the 30K debt we had over our heads was costing us more in interest to the CCCs than what we were making in our 401K investments. 

Thought her main push was not accruing penalties, which we didn't.   :    Thanks for replying.

BoA World Points 1000/ BoAmericard 9700/ Citicard MC 8900/ BoA Rewards7500/ AmexBlue 1800/ Target Visa 200/ Catherine's1700  AU on Discover 8500

EQ: 800

EXP: 807

SW FICO: 783

CK: 722

Her new Discover (EQ) 811

GOAL: Life among the 800's  LOL  getting and keeping good credit and being rewarded for it.

---

I totally understand your point and i think suze orman does not want you to put your hard earned retirement on paying off credit card debt. If you get a chance look at this website www.cnbc.com/id/100943510

[vanitybag]

Thanks for the link to Suze's show.  I saw it and understand where u guys are coming from.  We are still 20 to 25 years older than the specific couple she was talking about.  Never thought there was an option:   We OWED  the money.   In some account somewhere we HAD  the money and so we paid it off.   I mean no disrespect to anyone ever but filing a BK was not for us.  Our CC Util was probably close to 100%.  So we were doing something wrong.  

We just chose a clean slate by hitting ourselves over the head (by taking out the 401K money) sharp and quick rather than wait years it takes to get out from under the debris of a BK.  Also we feel better about it.

One never knows what will happen in the future and I'm grateful for being in a community here where I can learn so much      Thanks

BoA World Points 1000/ BoAmericard 9700/ Citicard MC 8900/ BoA Rewards7500/ AmexBlue 1800/ Target Visa 200/ Catherine's1700

EQ: 800

EXP: 807

SW FICO: 783

CK: 722

Her new Discover (EQ) 811

GOAL: Life among the 800's  LOL  getting and keeping good credit and being rewarded for it.

[compassion101]

You didn't pay any penalty, you weren't a BK candidate, and you are now not paying any interest on credit cards. I think you did just fine. And Lol Suzy Orman, she knows about 4 or 5 things and just keeps repeating them. And I doubt she would tell you that you did anything wrong in this situation. She talks about not touching your retirement funds early. This wasn;t early for you and was a good use of your money (assuming it didn't leave you without any money)

[vanitybag]

THANK YOU!!!    WHEW......!!   I really appreciate the feedback.  (Isn't the best  feedback when someone agrees with you?   LOL)   We do have LESS retirement funds than we had. But we should be ok.  And it's growing back..  

EXP FICO 782

EQ FICO  783

TU FICO  766