401k advice

That's true. The only downside is, you miss out on whatever growth that 401(k) money would have made had it been left alone.

That's kind of how I accidentally beat the system. I took out a $5,000 loan on my 401(k) in 2006 to buy my house -- right as the bubble was bursting, as I'd later find out. It seems strange to say this was fortunate but my 401(k) tanked and cratered in early 2009 -- exactly when I scraped together enough money to pay off the 401(k) loan.

So I put the full $5K back in my 401(k) just when the stock market started to regain some steam in 09 and 10, and I wound up catching those gains.