need advise on how to avoid bad credit

Lost my job last October. Met someone who I was going to marry. He lost his I.T. Industry job for the first time. Thought he'd get a job right away. Spent all of my nest egg and charged up $20,000 under my name. He mislead me big time on his financial status.

l'm waiting for him to get a job. He may in 2-3 months. Who knows. I'm temping and getting a quarter of what my salary was. So, I thought I'd cash in $20,000 of of 401K from an ex-employer. So far, I haven't made a credit card payment in 4 months. I don't know how much damadge this is doing to my credit history. Never had bad credit or no money before.

Fidelity said I'd have to pay 10% plus income tax. How much money will go to income tax? Does that depend on the amount of my salary? I don't think it will reach $30,000 this year. My real question is it worth it to take $20,000 of my $65,000 401K to pay off 2 credit cards?

Thanks for listening. I'm stressed and need some relief.

Have a good day.

The 401k funds not going to the penalty will be taxed just like they were income. You will probably get hit with a 20% withholding, but that should cover most of the taxes depending on your tax bracket. Early withdrawals (http://www.money-talk.org/401k/401k-early-withdrawals.shtml) can be pretty expensive.

$20000 - ($20000 x 10%) + (20000 x 25%) = Net

$20000 - (($2000 penalty) + $5000 taxes @ 25%) = $13000 Net.

You should end up with about $13000.

The income tax is assessed for the tax year in which the withdrawl is taken.

Dump him. I'd have a job flippin' burgers if I had to.

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here are some simple advices for you...
1. pay your bills on time
2. dont run your credit score once in a while.
3. be a good citizen..