Something worth keeping in mind is employer matching as well as the ability to take loans from your 401(K). My employer matches up to 6% of my salary at 150% (man is this awesome), the past year I've been putting my 6% in and just last month I took half of everything (including the employer match) out as a loan to pay off debts at 4.25% APR. The money would perform better in the market than the interest I'm paying back to myself, but I'm not throwing money away on interest to the banks and instead paying it back to myself while continuing to make my regular contributions.