Posted: 8/18/2009 5:32:33 PM EDT
|
Long story short, I'm 38, only have about 25k in my retirement, have about 10k in CC debt and have zero faith in the market going past August. I would like to be debt free, which I would be if I cashed out (aside from my house which I'm upside down on by about 30k) and paid them off. I would like to cash out my 401k. And as much as I appreciate others offering input as to why I shouldn't do this, I really am just looking for help going through with this. I called once in July to talk to my 'representative' (Yeah, right...what a joke) and he asked if I had 'experienced a loss of income or other catastrophic event'. To which I said "not yet, but it's coming" and he chuckled. He made it sound like I CAN'T take out MY money without some extenuating circumstance. First....WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT? How can I not take my own money out? 2nd....how do I beat the system and get it out? NOTE: I work for a family business in case that helps anybody. |
|
Quoted: The market will come back before you retire. I happen to believe we will go through years of stagnation, if not decades. My plan is to use the money to payoff the debt, and then immediately start saving again, however in another vehicle, and not in the canned Mutual Funds which I'm FORCED to use now. |
|
401k money is VESTED money which belongs to YOU only. Period. The penalty for cashing it in before the agreed upon retirement age (60, 65, etc.) is 10% you pay next time you file income tax. In addition to the "penalty" of 10% for early withdrawal, you also have to pay federal income tax on it which I believe is 20%ish (mine was). And depending on what state you're in and what state income taxes are on 401k withdrawals (California collects 10% of whatever the federal income tax amount was, so I paid 2% of the total amount to CA), you'll likely have a state tax liability as well.
Oh, and the taxes are based on the total gross amount in your account. If you have a loan from it (I did) and there was s till a balance, you just pay those taxes on the TOTAL amount it should be. My 401k, which I cashed in a couple months ago was $37,800. $8,500 was oustanding from a $15k loan I took out from it and was paying back slowly. So instead of my total 401k balance being $29300, which is what I had in there, the entire amount with the unpaid loan amount is all totalled up. Soooo... $37,800 - $7560 (20% fed income tax) - $1512 (2% of fed tax amount paid to CA as income tax) - $8500 (which wasn't really in there because I was paying it back) = $20,228 (and I haven't paid the $3780 "penalty" tax yet..which I probably will in early 2010) If you've ever been paid a bonus at work, you probably noticed it's at about 45% taxation...since it's not considered earned wages which have a different tax bracket. Cashing in your 401k ends up being like that bonus. Choose wisely when doing this. Once it's gone...it's gone. But if you are anticipating the end of the world in 12/21/12 like everyone else, go for it!! So yeah....there it is. It's probably your agents job to discourage you at every turn. If you are certain you want to loose about a third of your 401k in taxes (it is after all, income as was your paychecks all those years), then they are required to disperse your funds at your request. GO ahead and challenge your agent if they get stupid about it...all 401ks are the same type of fund..they are vested money in holding until your retirement with above mentioned early withdrawal agreements. |
|
Quoted: 401k money is VESTED money which belongs to YOU only. Period. The penalty for cashing it in before the agreed upon retirement age (60, 65, etc.) is 10% you pay next time you file income tax. In addition to the "penalty" of 10% for early withdrawal, you also have to pay federal income tax on it which I believe is 20%ish (mine was). And depending on what state you're in and what state income taxes are on 401k withdrawals (California collects 10% of whatever the federal income tax amount was, so I paid 2% of the total amount to CA). Oh, and the taxes are based on the total gross amount in your account. If you have a loan from it (I did) and there was s till a balance, you just pay those taxes on the TOTAL amount it should be. My 401k, which I cashed in a couple months ago was $37,800. $8,500 was oustanding from a $15k loan I took out from it and was paying back slowly. So instead of my total 401k balance being $29300, which is what I had in there, the entire amount with the unpaid loan amount is all totalled up. Soooo... $37,800 - $7560 (20% fed income tax) - $1512 (2% of fed tax amount paid to CA as income tax) - $8500 (which wasn't really in there because I was paying it back) = $20,228 (and I haven't paid the $3780 "penalty" tax yet..which I probably will in early 2010) So yeah....there it is. It's probably your agents job to discourage you at every turn. If you are certain you want to loose about a third of your 401k in taxes (it is after all, income as was your paychecks all those years), then they are required to disperse your funds at your request. GO ahead and challenge your agent if they get stupid about it...all 401ks are the same type of fund..they are vested money in holding until your retirement with above mentioned early withdrawal agreements. Thank you very much for the input. I am aware of the tax implications and of course would prefer to NOT do it if I don't have to, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the bear market rally is just about over. I'm not a financial investor, and I don't want to be a 'market timer', but at this point I think it's the best solution. I'll contemplate it some more, but now knowing I CAN get it out regardless, that's huge and an important piece of info. Thanks again. |
|
well after you pay federal taxes and a penalty you will net out about 50% of what you have - a little more than what you owe on you CC - its not a smart idea
the market is up 45% since march admittedly it probably wont go up 10-15% a year do to a slower recovery because of overleveraged consumers and drop in housing prices - but we will exceed the high of 14700 or whatever it was one day in the not so distant future - i would be willing to bet in 2-3 years at most its just going to take some time to work through this but we have most likely bottomed out if your dead set on it, call his ass up tell him to send your money, but i wouldnt do it |
|
Quoted: 1) You are it deep shit if that is all you have saved. Have fun working forever. 2) You will be in even deeper shit if you cash it out. Have fun working as a Wal-Mart greeter. well, it was almost 50k, but we all know what happened there don't we. But thank you for the informative post. |
|
Do you have the option of borrowing from your 401k?
The "loan" must be paid back, the bonus is you pay yourself back + interest. FWIW, about 15yrs ago, I borrowed from mine to partly pay down my house. At the time of the "loan" the market was at a peak then took a dip while I was paying myself back. It worked out quite well in my circumstance. |
|
Quoted: Long story short, I'm 38, only have about 25k in my retirement, have about 10k in CC debt and have zero faith in the market going past August. I would like to be debt free, which I would be if I cashed out (aside from my house which I'm upside down on by about 30k) and paid them off. I would like to cash out my 401k. And as much as I appreciate others offering input as to why I shouldn't do this, I really am just looking for help going through with this. I called once in July to talk to my 'representative' (Yeah, right...what a joke) and he asked if I had 'experienced a loss of income or other catastrophic event'. To which I said "not yet, but it's coming" and he chuckled. He made it sound like I CAN'T take out MY money without some extenuating circumstance. First....WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT? How can I not take my own money out? 2nd....how do I beat the system and get it out? NOTE: I work for a family business in case that helps anybody. Good god man, you HAVE no idea what you're doing. You need to take a personal finance course ASAP. You won't be able to retire if you don't heed my advice.
|
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
The market will come back before you retire. I happen to believe we will go through years of stagnation, if not decades. My plan is to use the money to payoff the debt, and then immediately start saving again, however in another vehicle, and not in the canned Mutual Funds which I'm FORCED to use now. your listening to too many talking heads and gloom and doomers dont believe any of it as mentioned we probably wont see a strong "V" shaped recovery this time around because the last boom was financed by plastic and interest only loans, so there will be a transition period back to a new normal slower growth, but that is good anyway for the economy you need to stay in the market IMO |
|
Quoted: well after you pay federal taxes and a penalty you will net out about 50% of what you have - a little more than what you owe on you CC - its not a smart idea the market is up 45% since march admittedly it probably wont go up 10-15% a year do to a slower recovery because of overleveraged consumers and drop in housing prices - but we will exceed the high of 14700 or whatever it was one day in the not so distant future - i would be willing to bet in 2-3 years at most its just going to take some time to work through this but we have most likely bottomed out if your dead set on it, call his ass up tell him to send your money, but i wouldnt do it I know...I hear ya too. My primary fear is that the market is going to take another SIGNIFICANT plunge and I will be stuck with basically nothing. It's tough to bet your retirement on it, but alas it's not much money now as it is. Trust me, I've been contemplating this for a while. I'm still not sure I'm gonna pull the trigger. Thanks for the input. |
|
Quoted:
Long story short, I'm 38, only have about 25k in my retirement, have about 10k in CC debt and have zero faith in the market going past August. I would like to be debt free, which I would be if I cashed out (aside from my house which I'm upside down on by about 30k) and paid them off. I would like to cash out my 401k. And as much as I appreciate others offering input as to why I shouldn't do this, I really am just looking for help going through with this. I called once in July to talk to my 'representative' (Yeah, right...what a joke) and he asked if I had 'experienced a loss of income or other catastrophic event'. To which I said "not yet, but it's coming" and he chuckled. He made it sound like I CAN'T take out MY money without some extenuating circumstance. First....WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT? How can I not take my own money out? 2nd....how do I beat the system and get it out? NOTE: I work for a family business in case that helps anybody. It's not your money. It's your retirement money. |
|
See if you can take out a loan, you will have to pay it back, directly from your check.
The only way to cash it in, is to leave the company you work for, the you can do whatever you wish, but if you cash it in, you will lose at least 40% of it to taxes, that includes a 10% penelty off the top, followed by 20% to the feds and 10% to the state. good luck. |
|
Don't cash out what you have now.
Examine your budget and find out where you can trim. I challenged myself to try to reduce my budget every month when I lived in Kansas. At one point, I had my monthly budget down to 1% of gross yearly income. Stop contributions to 401(k) to pay off credit card, but don't cash out current 401(k)!!! |
|
Quoted: Quoted: Long story short, I'm 38, only have about 25k in my retirement, have about 10k in CC debt and have zero faith in the market going past August. I would like to be debt free, which I would be if I cashed out (aside from my house which I'm upside down on by about 30k) and paid them off. I would like to cash out my 401k. And as much as I appreciate others offering input as to why I shouldn't do this, I really am just looking for help going through with this. I called once in July to talk to my 'representative' (Yeah, right...what a joke) and he asked if I had 'experienced a loss of income or other catastrophic event'. To which I said "not yet, but it's coming" and he chuckled. He made it sound like I CAN'T take out MY money without some extenuating circumstance. First....WHAT THE F*CK IS THAT? How can I not take my own money out? 2nd....how do I beat the system and get it out? NOTE: I work for a family business in case that helps anybody. It's not your money. It's your retirement money. If he takes that out he is stealing from the government. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
The market will come back before you retire. I happen to believe we will go through years of stagnation, if not decades. My plan is to use the money to payoff the debt, and then immediately start saving again, however in another vehicle, and not in the canned Mutual Funds which I'm FORCED to use now. You're 38. You have 20-25 years before you retire. If the market stagnates even for 10 years, then takes off, then imagine how much you could "buy in" during that stagnation. The more you buy, the bigger it gets when the market rises. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
well after you pay federal taxes and a penalty you will net out about 50% of what you have - a little more than what you owe on you CC - its not a smart idea the market is up 45% since march admittedly it probably wont go up 10-15% a year do to a slower recovery because of overleveraged consumers and drop in housing prices - but we will exceed the high of 14700 or whatever it was one day in the not so distant future - i would be willing to bet in 2-3 years at most its just going to take some time to work through this but we have most likely bottomed out if your dead set on it, call his ass up tell him to send your money, but i wouldnt do it I know...I hear ya too. My primary fear is that the market is going to take another SIGNIFICANT plunge and I will be stuck with basically nothing. It's tough to bet your retirement on it, but alas it's not much money now as it is. Trust me, I've been contemplating this for a while. I'm still not sure I'm gonna pull the trigger. Thanks for the input. dont worry about if takes another nose dive just put money in every paycheck and dont even look at it its probably going to go down another 10% in september bc thats always a suck ass month for the market, but who gives a shit, just dollar average into it every paycheck and in 2-3 years you will not only will have your 50K back but you will be looking at 100K - get into some agressive emerging market and mid-cap growth funds and just stay the course man |
|
Look - I work for a rather large investment company - on the personal (IRAs, brokerage accts, etc.) not the institutional (401k, 403b, Non-Prototype, etc) - usually to take out the money you have to have what is known
as a 'triggering' event - it is your money; more often than not your 401k holder wants to keep as much of you in the plan as possible - ask him about doing a rollover to the same company that holds the 401k - trust me he'll tell you how to get the assets out. If the guy wants to know why you want to move it let him know that you would like more investment options - stocks, MF, bonds, etc (because typically 401ks are limited) and that you would like to be able to proactively trade it without some of the stipulations that Mutual Funds have on them (like roundtrips and short-term trading fees, albeit these are commonly waived in institutional accts but most of the folks you talk to don't have a clue) I still think you will need a "triggering" event though; unfortunately every and I do mean EVERY 401k has a different set of rules. Just my .02 - like I said I know a ton more about IRAs and such, but I know some about 401ks not a lot any more questions just pm me |
|
Most plans will only allow you to make withdraws for a limited number of reasons. Catastrophe, house, college, etc.. You may only get all the money if you quit in most cases.
Your best bet may be to take out a loan from the 401k to pay off your cc's. I doubt you will get 15, 20,25% returns from anything right now. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
c. 401K is for suckers in a pyramid scheme - most everyone is finding they were the last sucker - don't do it again. What does that mean? It's value is obtained by getting new investors like a pyramid scheme. The P/E's are crazy high (S&P@145 right now) and could NEVER pay back investors, well in a 145 years, if they paid out all profits in dividends. w/o new ones system would collapse on itself. Using any kind of metric for buying a business, the DOW has support for about 1200 not 9000 and certainly not 14,000. Therefore I never screw with it - too volatile, unpredictable and not enough any cash flow. I suggest oil and gas wells and other commodities or investing in yourself. |
|
I would say move your money to a self directed IRA at Schwab to get control, but I have a feeling you're of a mind to pull out of the stock market altogether, so that won't work.
Buckle down your spending and pay the credit card debt off with every spare penney you can raise. A part time job slinging burgers will pay it down fairly quickly. |
|
Thanks for all the replies guys. I cannot take a loan against it. Our company doesn't have that option; I've checked into it. I honestly don't want to cash it out. Matter of fact, part of me is mad I'm not putting money into it anymore. I don't trust the market. I have a hard time believing in this horrible recession, that the market has returned to 75% of it's worth in just a few months. The whole reeks of a 'house of cards' and I can't afford to get caught with my pants down. If my retirement is obliterated, and I didn't use it to pay off debt, I'm in big trouble for the long run. |
|
I would leave your money right where it's at.
Penalty is too high. Then the fed will raise interest rates as they have to to get investors in their long bonds which no one is buying at the moment. It's nice to have a house@ 5% when all other loans out there are 21-25% - I went through that and I think Carter will be small potatoes compared to Commie. Inflation alone will have market going back up someday and people are dumb asses and need someone to hold their hand even ignoring when CEOs and Bankers get all the money, 401K's and stock will always be popular because people can't get enough of Wall Street Casino. |
|
Quoted:
The market will come back before you retire. Maybe, maybe not. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a113/anchoryanker/Picture2-1.png 20 years, 75% loss. Do you honestly expect for the Nikkei to quadruple in the next 10 years? if not, that'll be 30+ years and the market still "hasn't come back" If you invested there anytime in the last 20 years, you've lost money. Now I'm not saying that that will happen here, but you have to understand that despite the propaganda, you're not guaranteed to make money in the long term, there still is a non-negligible risk that you could lose most (or all) of your investment. That's something people need to be aware of, and something you'll never see talked about on CNBS. People need to be REALLY educated about the risks of investing, and I don't mean the crap memes that the pump monkeys at the business channels and on the sell-side pass out like candy. If you bought before the crash of 1929, it was the 1950's before you broke even in nominal terms, and sometime in the 1990s-ish before you broke even adjusted for inflation. Oh, here's an American one as well 10 years, 50%+ loss: http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a113/anchoryanker/Picture4.png |
|
Quoted:
Thanks for all the replies guys. I cannot take a loan against it. Our company doesn't have that option; I've checked into it. I honestly don't want to cash it out. Matter of fact, part of me is mad I'm not putting money into it anymore. I don't trust the market. I have a hard time believing in this horrible recession, that the market has returned to 75% of it's worth in just a few months. The whole reeks of a 'house of cards' and I can't afford to get caught with my pants down. If my retirement is obliterated, and I didn't use it to pay off debt, I'm in big trouble for the long run. Right now 80% to 90% of your money in that 401k should be in a fixed income fund; the returns are low, but not as low as a negative return. The rest could be equally distributed between a S&P 500 fund and an international fund. |
|
Quoted:
Maybe, maybe not Best answer so far crap memes that the pump monkeys at the business channels and on the sell-side pass out like candy.
And why it will go back up, assuming we somehow get some cash back on main street. Right now, getting cash flowing again seems an impossibility - a lot of America is tight or living on savings with no wherewithal to borrow or spend - coupled with an immense tax burden coming. I revert to your answer - maybe maybe not. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
The market will come back before you retire. Maybe, maybe not. http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a113/anchoryanker/Picture2-1.png 20 years, 75% loss. Do you honestly expect for the Nikkei to quadruple in the next 10 years? if not, that'll be 30+ years and the market still "hasn't come back" If you invested there anytime in the last 20 years, you've lost money. Now I'm not saying that that will happen here, but you have to understand that despite the propaganda, you're not guaranteed to make money in the long term, there still is a non-negligible risk that you could lose most (or all) of your investment. That's something people need to be aware of, and something you'll never see talked about on CNBS. People need to be REALLY educated about the risks of investing, and I don't mean the crap memes that the pump monkeys at the business channels and on the sell-side pass out like candy. If you bought before the crash of 1929, it was the 1950's before you broke even in nominal terms, and sometime in the 1990s-ish before you broke even adjusted for inflation. Oh, here's an American one as well 10 years, 50%+ loss: http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a113/anchoryanker/Picture4.png No way. The Japanese tried some funny strategy called "quantitative easing" to try to get out of their slump and it didn't work. We wouldn't be so stupid. Heyyyyy. Wait a minute . . . |
|
Quoted:
Get Dave Ramsey's book. I have no CC debt and now working to pay off my house. You seriously have to wake up and start taking hold of your finances. I may sound rude by being blunt but you came here for help and we are trying to help you here. Good book and Millionaire next door as well. And don't listen to doomers OP it's never too late to start. 38 ain't old or 'too late' I've give up everything to be 38 again. These books basically revolve around the premise of sacrifice (frugality), discipline, and hard work - exact opposite our society teaches us. I tend to disagree with Ramsey on cash for everything but he's KISS so it's generally a good principle. |
|
pwrestler180 is correct. I've worked as a Plan Administrator, fwiw... You need to see if your plan offers in service withdrawals. Some do these days. If not you have to hit a "triggering event"- purchase of a primary residence, prevent eviction or foreclosure, pay for medical or education expenses for you, spouse, child. You plan should provide a SPD to you- Summary Plan Document, it's an abbreviated outline of the plan, it should cover all of this. I AM NOT A TAX ADVISOR. However. Generally speaking you will have mandatory 20% withholding for Federal taxes at the time of distribution. An additional 10% premature distribution penalty will be charged- this is part of your tax forms and won't be withheld at the time of your distribution. On top of that, you take your gross distribution amount and add it to your income to calculate your AGI. You may run up your tax bracket, and of course if your tax rate is over 20% you'll owe the penalty and the difference from what you've already had withheld. Of course state tax may be a factor for you, too. You'd be lucky to net 50% or less from a 401(k) distribution. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
c. 401K is for suckers in a pyramid scheme - most everyone is finding they were the last sucker - don't do it again. What does that mean? That the person writing that has no clue. I understand your lashing out - no lone likes to admit they are a victim of a fraud. With a virtually forced contribution schema since 1981 there are a lot of victims. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
c. 401K is for suckers in a pyramid scheme - most everyone is finding they were the last sucker - don't do it again. What does that mean? That the person writing that has no clue. I understand your lashing out - no one likes to admit they are a victim of a fraud. With a virtually forced contribution schema since 1981 there are a lot of victims. PS wait till boomers start pulling out of the pyramid. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
1) You are it deep shit if that is all you have saved. Have fun working forever. 2) You will be in even deeper shit if you cash it out. Have fun working as a Wal-Mart greeter. well, it was almost 50k, but we all know what happened there don't we. But thank you for the informative post. Your value has dropped by half? How the $%^& did you manage that?? My 401k was about 22k last fall, went as low as 19k and is now sitting at 28k (I'm 27). |
|
Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: c. 401K is for suckers in a pyramid scheme - most everyone is finding they were the last sucker - don't do it again. What does that mean? That the person writing that has no clue. I understand your lashing out - no lone likes to admit they are a victim of a fraud. With a virtually forced contribution schema since 1981 there are a lot of victims. You spoke of volatility in the stock market and then spoke about commodities. Like oil. You can put your money in a bank and earn little interest. Or the bank can fail as they have been doing. You can put your trust to a corporate or government pension. Or the pension can be underfunded as has been occurring in both corporate and government pensions. You can bury the money in the backyard and watch it disappear to inflation. You can buy real estate. Or the government can take it a la Kelo, or it can be destroyed of value by a waste dumper. You can buy commodities. Or the price can fall out of the bottom like it did on oil. You can also buy stocks. Lots of people make money in all these areas. Some lose to be sure. But I have a basic distrust of anybody who describes the stock market as a pyramid scheme. Especially when that person shows you can't make money by assuming that you invested all of it on one particular day rather than throughout a lifetime. And no one is forced to contribute. I certainly wasn't. The people who have money are the people who invest it. Most people I have met who don't have any money saved at all are the ones that don't participate in any retirement plans like 401k, IRA's etc. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
c. 401K is for suckers in a pyramid scheme - most everyone is finding they were the last sucker - don't do it again. What does that mean? That the person writing that has no clue. I understand your lashing out - no lone likes to admit they are a victim of a fraud. With a virtually forced contribution schema since 1981 there are a lot of victims. You spoke of volatility in the stock market and then spoke about commodities. Like oil. You can put your money in a bank and earn little interest. Or the bank can fail as they have been doing. You can put your trust to a corporate or government pension. Or the pension can be underfunded as has been occurring in both corporate and government pensions. You can bury the money in the backyard and watch it disappear to inflation. You can buy real estate. Or the government can take it a la Kelo, or it can be destroyed of value by a waste dumper. You can buy commodities. Or the price can fall out of the bottom like it did on oil. You can also buy stocks. Lots of people make money in all these areas. Some lose to be sure. But I have a basic distrust of anybody who describes the stock market as a pyramid scheme. Especially when that person shows you can't make money by assuming that you invested all of it on one particular day rather than throughout a lifetime. And no one is forced to contribute. I certainly wasn't. The people who have money are the people who invest it. Most people I have met who don't have any money saved at all are the ones that don't participate in any retirement plans like 401k, IRA's etc. As we all know we can make gold, stocks, RE or anything else look great or terrible by choosing a time period to support an argument. There ain't no sure thing and if it were easy everyone would be rich. I personally never had a job to avail myself of a 401K, and yes it's virtually forced by 1981 tax code and company match - been in business since 16 - 49 now and semi- retired but have watched the dismal returns in general over the years. 401k/403b is easy, relatively secure as long a scheme holds up, allows small contributions, and no brainer is why people do it - nothing else. Compared to owning a successful small business and other investments can yield it's a small potatoes and ignorant. But they have more risk and more capital requirements.... I've dumped plenty into dry holes, a failed restaurant and so on... At it's base it's a pyramid because it relies on getting new investors (speculation) rather than cash flow or profits since they are too low to support it's price. Hell most companies don't even and have never even paid dividends and only rely on speculation 100%. Most investors money and profits simply disappears into the ether of executive pay and investment banks (traditional business). How anyone, in this day and age, can not look at stock market as a pyramid scheme is bewildering to me. With that said I do invest 5k into a roth each year and trade options in that account - have more control than a mutual (another person leaching) and as a hedge against other investments Most people I know have stores/businesses worth 2-10 million which is why I told OP it's never too late. |
|
Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: 1) You are it deep shit if that is all you have saved. Have fun working forever. 2) You will be in even deeper shit if you cash it out. Have fun working as a Wal-Mart greeter. well, it was almost 50k, but we all know what happened there don't we. But thank you for the informative post. Your value has dropped by half? How the $%^& did you manage that?? My 401k was about 22k last fall, went as low as 19k and is now sitting at 28k (I'm 27). Probably because you have contributed about $10,000? |
|
Traditional Business:
There is a tree service company right now for sale in my area - guy want to retire and has a sweet utility contract. Net profit is about 250K with sales at 1.2M & equipment worth about 300K. One rule of investing is 3x net + equipment so about 1M would be a OK buy - because, assuming you didn't fuck anything up it's all gravy after 3 years. Pyramid: OTOH - you could buy stock and not have any idea where it's going and only are relying on finding someone else to buy to pump your investment over the next years. There are no rules here only speculation. |
| Take a loan out of your 401k and pay down the cc debt. You will be repaying yourself with interest. If you need to yo can adjust your reguloar contribution or suspend it. Then you will be making a contribution and repaying at the same time. You won't have a tax issue if you take a loan from your 401k, unless you lose your job. |
You won't be able to retire if you don't heed my advice.