TSP: financial hardship withdrawal

[Anonymous]

This thread is nearly six years old. Left in the C fund, the OP's 60k would today be 120k. I hope she didn't cash it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The loan won't work, because I still owe 14k to my tsp loan that we used for home improvements. U only can do 50k - what has been paid off. So I borrow 14k foe 60 dats to pay it off. I can only borrow 36k. That's 22 after I pay off the loan. Pay my loan off, my wife still has to work, and our situation is the same. I also left out my job is operational. I work odd shifts that change weekly and travel as well. Therefore, this is the only job she can have because of the schedule and the discount. Otherwise, we lose money and the kids probably have to stay in extended day. I know this is extreme but I believe it is my only option.

It's not just the cc debt that makes it a hardship. When you factor the schedule issues and any other job I take would mean a significant drop in pay and then two of us would hate our jobs.

The reason I choose this old post is because it seemed the closest to my situation. I am not doing this like a get out of jail card...I am going to have to work an additional 10 years because of this. When we move, we will downsize and save additional money. We don't live extravagant lives. One car, i commute to live further out where we can afford our home, and I couldn't even give my wife a wedding. Right now, we just get by...I want to lower the stress and this seems to be the only way. I mad a mistake...me...and I will have to pay by working longer. My wife and kids shouldn't suffer because I screwed up and have been digging a deeper hole ever since.

STOP acting out of misplaced shame. act out of logic. you say you made a big financial mistake. you are about to make another big one.
You and your wife are a TEAM. even your kids are on your team. everyone has to pull some weight.
your wife has to work. thats okay-most wives work!
your kids have to go to public school and put up with some tough kids. that's true for all kids!
you make good money. many families would be grateful to make that much money. if you can't live off that money than you will NEVER HAVE enough money.
you and your wife TOGETHER decided to have her stay home for five years. that was a family decision. stop beating yourself up about it. its not like you have a gambling addiction.
your wife is not a child, she can look for another job if she is unhappy. you cannot live her life for her and no amount of money you earn will make her happy.
you are more than just a paycheck to your family. you don't have to live a 'lifestyle lie' to be worthy of them. your kids love you already, they don't need more money from you.
teach them what it means to live within your means. teach them about tradeoffs and sacrifices. make them part of your team. they will end up more resilient if you give them this gift.

start living within your means and DON'T BE ASHAMED OF THAT.
slowly pay down the credit card debt.
Go to a Dave Ramsey workshop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looked into this a while back to pay for last year of childcare and the definition of hardship is really strict. Can’t just withdraw by of cc debt.

Right-I looked into it too to pay off DS college loans. They were like, nope nope.