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You feel like you’re drowning in credit card debt. And while you can’t squeeze anything more out of your paycheck, you may have a tidy sum sitting in an individual retirement account (IRA). Sure, those funds are supposed to stay untouched until you retire. But that’s a long way off. Might it be a better move to use all or part of your IRA to get those high balances off your back? Read on to find out more about the implications of using retirement funds to pay off credit card debt.

Many people fantasize about financing a good chunk of their retirement by selling their current home, buying a smaller place, and investing the difference for income. In reality, however, they often reap far less profit than they might have hoped.

Unexpected or not, it can be tempting to start spending more when you earn more. But before you do, take pause. “You have to ask yourself if you want to be drinking expensive wine now or buying a vineyard later on,” said Jonathan Drubner, certified financial planner and wealth advisor at Intersect Capital.

For building retirement savings​, 401(k) savings plans have become one of the better deals. Traditional 401(k)s allow you to save pre-tax dollars right out of your paychecks to build a retirement nest egg. The Roth 401(k) has been added to many workplace plans; it allows you to build savings that you can withdraw tax-free in retirement as long as you meet certain prerequisites. Many employers provide matching contributions to employee plans, making them an even better deal.

When you’re in your 20s, retirement seems so far off that it hardly feels real at all. In fact, it’s one of the most common excuses people make to justify not saving for retirement. If that describes you, think of these savings instead as wealth accumulation, suggests Marguerita Cheng, CFP, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Rockville, Md.

An individual retirement account (IRA), as the name implies, is a place to store those golden nest eggs for the golden years. But here’s an interesting fact: Many senior workers and new retirees are still building their IRAs. More than half of the IRAs owned by those near or in retirement (60 or older) saw balance increases over a three-year period, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

For 11 years, Phillip A. Kenner, a former financial advisor, solicited hockey players to invest money in schemes he said would earn significant profits. Rather than investing the money as promised, Kenner along with Tommy C. Constantine, a former professional race car driver, used the funds to pay for personal real estate purchases, jewelry, travel costs, credit card bills and other expenses. In total the victims of Kenner and Constantine’s schemes lost more than $15 million, according to a press release from the FBI.

It is hard not to react to the stock market – especially when it makes wild, unpredictable gyrations up-and-down and steep, unexpected dives.

We look on petrified as our portfolios plunge in value. We call friends, family and financial advisors in search of reassurance. Some of us panic and sell to limit losses. Yet just a few months earlier we were eagerly pouring through news articles and analyst reports looking for the next big thing. A few of us bragged about double-digit returns.

The stories leading the MarketWatch homepage right now.

Small business ownership and tax expertise do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. And that’s OK — as a care professional, your foremost focus should be on providing the best possible services and growing your business from the bottom up.