[sammyg2]

About 10 or years ago, the company I worked for got bought out and one of the guys who reported to me evidently got spooked for some reason, and decided to pull all his 401k money out. He had been there over 30 years at the time. And he spent most of it, paying off huge debt, daughter's student loans, etc.
Then to top that trick, he decided not to report it to the IRS come tax time. They'll never know right?

Well it turns out that they're funny about such things.
Many years later they stopped garnishing his wages.

He ended up working until long after he was eligible for retirement.

Please forgive me for unsolicited preaching, but pulling out 401k money and spending it on something other than retirement should be an absolute last resort. Only if you can't get it anywhere else.