Houshphandzadeh wrote:it's 2013 and still I've heard 'Smooth' on four consecutive days

first time i've turned on our local FM station in years- it's the second song i heard.

Thanks for getting that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day. I needed more Rob Thomas in my life.

I shall now refer to it as "Smooth, featuring Slowhand"

I wouldn't think Clapton would play with Rob Thomas short of a Misery-like scenario.

Phils/Mets
Sixers/Nets
Flyers/Islanders

Don't get swept

Houshphandzadeh wrote:it's 2013 and still I've heard 'Smooth' on four consecutive days

heard me what now


Some Alzheimer's charity robocalls my # every day

they must forget they called the day before

BigEd76 wrote:Phils/Mets
Sixers/Nets
Flyers/Islanders

Don't get swept

A Mets fan I used to work with reminded me of this on FB this morning.

anyone ever take a loan against their retirement plan?

seems like I could do one at 3.5% which is a heck of a lot lower than the credit cards I'm trying to pay off

Houshphandzadeh wrote:anyone ever take a loan against their retirement plan?

seems like I could do one at 3.5% which is a heck of a lot lower than the credit cards I'm trying to pay off

a loan for what? If it's for credit cards, don't most 401ks and such penalize you heavily for withdrawing on them (with some exceptions like first-time home buying, etc.)?

More information is needed, but this smells like a very bad idea

I have 5k in credit card debt that I'm struggling to pay off. interest on that ranges from 12-19%

there are no penalties for the loans; we're not actually allowed to do straight withdrawals under our plan. interest on the loan is 3.5%. I have 12K in my account now and would be taking 5K out for the CCs. it's unclear to me so far (looking into it now) whether my monthly contributions go toward the repayment or whether I make a payment above and beyond those. I would choose to make additional payments either way to erase the interest, at least equal to what I'm paying the credit card companies now

is it possible you could find someone willing to give you a zero interest balance transfer?

i'm probably out of my depth here, but most financial nerds freak when someone talks about withdrawing on retirement accounts. The interest rate issue seems to make logical sense though. I'll bow out now, semi-gracefully

Houshphandzadeh wrote:I have 5k in credit card debt that I'm struggling to pay off. interest on that ranges from 12-19%

there are no penalties for the loans; we're not actually allowed to do straight withdrawals under our plan. interest on the loan is 3.5%. I have 12K in my account now and would be taking 5K out for the CCs. it's unclear to me so far (looking into it now) whether my monthly contributions go toward the repayment or whether I make a payment above and beyond those. I would choose to make additional payments either way to erase the interest, at least equal to what I'm paying the credit card companies now

I 2nd woodrow's general cautionary note, but support your analysis. You're young(ish), apparently pretty sure you have sufficient job security to pay off the 5k, and want to shed the ridic interest payments. If this were a matter of a vote, and I had one, I would vote yea.

Why my reference to sufficient job security to pay off the loan? Mainly because many, though not all, plans prohibit ex-employees from carrying loan balances. that should be spelled out somewhere in some dusty employee handbook, or website, or whatever.

I am going to have to look into that, because I guess it's possible I finally find a new job in the next few years, but almost everyone in my field uses TIAA-CREF it seems like

It makes sense in certain situations. Like now, the market is very high, so it's as good a time as any to "sell".

What you're doing essentially is "selling" $5K worth of your shares at current values. Then you buy them back over the course of the repayment schedule a little at a time, at whatever the market is at that point. So, if the market tanks, you could very well make out on the deal. If it goes up, you lose the gains you would have achieved.

Oh, and one very important point- you're paying that 3.r% interest to YOURSELF. You will be buying more shares with your interest payment. And not paying credit card interest.

And yes, it's above and beyond your normal contribution. Most places require that you continue contributing during the entire course of the loan.

And smoothy is correct (as usual) in that if you quit yer job, you've got to pay off the loan within sixty days, or else it gets reported as a pre-retirement withdrawal and will be subject to the 10% IRS penalty as well as normal income tax for that year.

Bucky wrote:And smoothy is correct (as usual) in that if you quit yer job, you've got to pay off the loan within sixty days, or else it gets reported as a pre-retirement withdrawal and will be subject to the 10% IRS penalty as well as normal income tax for that year.

Thanks, Obama.

Was going to add the tax point, thanks Bucky.

well, if that happens, I guess I can put the balance back on my empty credit cards, right?

Bucky wrote:It makes sense in certain situations. Like now, the market is very high, so it's as good a time as any to "sell".

What you're doing essentially is "selling" $5K worth of your shares at current values. Then you buy them back over the course of the repayment schedule a little at a time, at whatever the market is at that point. So, if the market tanks, you could very well make out on the deal. If it goes up, you lose the gains you would have achieved.

Oh, and one very important point- you're paying that 3.r% interest to YOURSELF. You will be buying more shares with your interest payment. And not paying credit card interest.

And yes, it's above and beyond your normal contribution. Most places require that you continue contributing during the entire course of the loan.

The way you describe it, it sounds like a great idea. Like, why aren't more people doing this great idea.

because the stock market usually goes up over the normal five year course of the loan, so you're selling lower than you buy

i'm sure you've thought of this but your monthly loan payment is going to be a lot higher than the cc. you'll pay it off much earlier and with less interest but make sure you can make the monthly payment.