About 401k.loans

401k.loans exists for one decision: whether to borrow from your 401(k), and what it will really cost if you do. Most of what’s written about 401(k) loans either stops at the monthly payment or is written by someone selling the alternative. This site tries to do the arithmetic honestly, including the parts that make a 401(k) loan look good.

How pages are researched

Every rule on the site comes from the tax code, IRS regulations and publications, Department of Labor rules, SBA lending rules or Federal Reserve data, and each one is listed with the date it was checked on the sources page. Where an official IRS page is out of date (the hardship distribution topic page still describes rules that changed in 2019), the site follows the regulation and says so.

Calculator defaults that come from market data, like the prime rate, show their source and date next to the field. Assumptions that nobody can know in advance, like what your investments will return, are left for you to set.

Corrections

If a figure is wrong or out of date, send a correction through the contact form with the page and the source. We check it against the primary source and update the page and its date.

Who publishes it

401k.loans is an independent website. It isn’t a lender, broker or adviser, and no lender or provider pays it; how we make money explains what the forms do with what you send.

The team