Has anyone pulled from their 401k to pay for the wedding?

@kristin. Thats helpful advise. I have not accumulated much yet. Im still at the beginning but I will see about talking to an investment counselor.

I wouldnt pull from a 401k. Thats meant to be part of your retirement savings. I picked up a part time job in addition to my full time job, and also do occassional babysitting and house sitting to pull in extra income. The extra goes towards the wedding. FH has been picking up some extra commissions work on his end. We would never pull from a retirement savings for a party. Life changing/altering medical or personal crisis, sure. Wedding? definitely not.

I wouldn't. You certainly have to pay a fee, or sometimes a percentage depending on how withdrawals are set up for your 401K. There is a penalty. Unless you have an emergency that you absolutely need money, like medical bills for instance, don't pull from your 401K.

@kristin I appreciate your explanation. Makes complete sense. Ill just leave it alone.

No please don't do this! You have to have a major life event (think death of a spouse, natural disaster, personal medical emergencies)to pull from 401k. I'm not sure that a wedding qualifies. But if it does, it's a terrible idea. That's money you'd be pulling from your future for a party now that isn't required and can be done for much less than what one would consider pulling from retirement for.

Nooooo!!!!!

Nope nope nope nope. I'd much rather have enough money to pay for my medical bills and end of life palliative care (not to mention a comfortable retirement - but it's end of life where what's left really makes a difference) than an "upgraded" party. If I 'need' to pull out of retirement, than I'm over spending for the wedding and need to downgrade.

No. No. No. Forget it's even an option. No.

As a side note, make sure you are investing at least enough to take full advantage of the company match (FREE MONEY). You should invest as much as you can as it's pre-tax dollars so you are being taxed less. You don't know if there will be enough Social Security when you retire so you need to start now.

It's not worth it to pay for a wedding ... that's nuts !!!

I would say research other routes before deciding to take from your 401k. Depending on your credit score, there are several other options. Personal loans (make sure to pay attention to interest rate!), credit cards, etc.

One route I looked into is applying for a new credit card that has intro APR incentives. For example, I found a card that offers 0% interest for 15 months. To me that is a really good option, because it means you could put wedding expenses on the card, and then pay it off little by little without having to worry about interest accumulating.

Be realistic about your budget and what you are comfortable spending. You don't want to start out your married life with a huge pile of debt that you can't realistically pay off. Good luck!

Someone mentioned above, but you very likely can't even do it unless it's a hardship withdrawal and no, paying for a wedding is not. Even if you can, you'll be hit with the penalty and taxes.

I've taken loans out of my 401k. You pay yourself back instead of a credit card company. It comes out of my paycheck twice a month. I don't even know the money is missing. It's like $50 for a 6k Loan. I did not do this for my wedding. I paid off a credit card w 24% interest with the loan. Best decision I ever made. You only get penalized if you take everything out of your 401k. Not for a loan. Not true about hardship withdrawal. You have an option for a personal loan. Doesn't have to be hardship. You can even take one out for a down payment on a house. My 401k is with Fidelity. Call them directly, they will answer every question you have.

I pull from my 401k when I need to. It's a loan so you pay it back but it has good interest rates so it's better than putting it on credit but keep in mind if the market goes up while you have that loan out you miss out on an upswing and the money you'd get had you not touched it.

The other crappy thing is at least with my 401k loans you cannot pay back higher amounts so you literally have to take the whole time to pay it back or pay it in full which makes it hard to pay it off early and save interest. Also, you can only have one loan at a time so if something happens and you really NEED another 401k loan for something else you're SOL until you pay the one you have out in full. I really wouldn't recommend it unless you truly need the money.

I will be taking a small loan from my 401k to tie up loose ends on the wedding. Mainly because we will also be moving the month before and I want the extra cushion outside of what we have saved up, tax refunds, and annual bonus at work. The interest on mine is not that bad. I took one for an emergency 2 years ago and paid a total of $34.62 in interest. There are no penalties for taking a loan because you are paying yourself back. A withdrawal on the other hand you are taxed hefty unless you can give the IRS a good enough reason as to why you did it. Ultimately, it's YOUR money anyway. Whether you use it for retirement, a new house, a car, or a party. It's YOURS.

@Kati with mine we can have 2 loans at a time and we can pay off early or make extra payments as needed.

My plan is with Vanguard

I'm still in college and have a 401k. Granted there's not much there yet since it's only been like 4 years, but I would absolutely advise NOT doing this. I cashed out like 2.5 years of my 401k from my last job to pay for tuition, and after all the taxes and fees I probably got back a little more than half of what I actually had built up. Just don't do it.

DO NOT DO IT!!!! Did I yell that? Yes, I did.

Do not use your 401k for anything other than its intended purpose. And do NOT take out any type of loan for your wedding. Put on the event you can afford, without taking out any type of loan.

You have to pay it back, pretty much as a loan to yourself if you do this.. This is just as bad as paying for your wedding with a credit card. Don't do it.

It's like robbing peter to pay paul but worse.

giant bags of nopes.