"It's very easy to get a 401(k) loan, and usually you have the money in hand fairly quickly. To my mind, that makes a 401(k) loan a good very-rainy-day option -- an emergency source of funds you can use if the emergency is big enough to tap out your regular rainy-day fund. But for something like a new car, or a down payment on a house, exhaust your other options first: nearly all of them will be cheaper than a 401(k) loan in the long run."  MORE >>