Some employers, who may or may not allow hardship withdrawals, will let you borrow money from your plan at work. These loans have limitations, but because the amount you borrow can be replaced, taking a temporary loan may be a better idea than a hardship withdrawal.

Most plans will let you borrow up to half your account balance—only the vested part, of course—up to $50,000. Loans are usually paid back over five years, except if you’re borrowing for a home, in which case the loan term might be longer. As with any other loan, you have to make regular payments and pay interest. Payments are withheld from your paycheck, so you need to be ready for the reduced take-home pay. The interest rate is set by the plan, but it’s usually the prime rate, plus a percent or two. The interest goes back into your plan, less an amount the plan keeps to defray the cost of administering the loan.

Loans are still better than outright withdrawals, but they do wreak some mischief on the potential investment success of your plan because the money you’ve borrowed for other expenses is money that’s not growing toward your retirement nest egg goal. What makes the situation worse is that many plans will bar you from contributing new money, or in some cases will limit your contributions while you’re repaying the loan. If this is the case, you lose the tax benefit and the dollar-cost averaging benefit of the plan, plus potentially any available employer match as well.

Loans are tax-free because you’re borrowing from your retirement plan account. But if you leave your job—voluntarily or not—before the loan is repaid, you may need to make a lump-sum repayment in a relatively short period of time, or the loan would be deemed a taxable distribution and could also incur the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty. Plans differ on this detail, so be sure you understand your plan’s policy when you take the loan.

401(k) loans don’t require credit checks and have little paperwork. In most cases, you can get a loan fairly quickly by contacting your company human resources department. The HR department may have some financial planning hoops they want you to jump through before the load is issued—just to be sure you fully understand the process and don’t have other resources to tap—so be sure to talk to them well in advance of needing a check.

You can only borrow from the 401(k) of your current employer. If you’ve left the company and rolled your 401(k) money into an IRA, you can’t take a loan unless your current employer allows you to redeposit the money into their 401(k) plan.

To ease the administrative costs of managing 401(k) loans, some employers have started issuing 401(k) debit cards. The debit card basically gives you access to your 401(k) plan balance as if it were a credit line. Unlike regular 401(k) loans that have payment schedules and payments withheld from your paycheck, 401(k) debit cards generate a bill you pay each month. The debit card bills keep coming until the loan is paid off, even if you leave the employer. Other than having the same drawbacks of missing out on the investment opportunities in the 401(k), one of the big risks with the 401(k) debit card is that if you miss a payment, the whole loan could go into default, becoming taxable immediately.

If you’ve had to borrow from your retirement account or, worse, take a hardship withdrawal, you need to focus on getting back on track as rapidly as possible. One of the biggest benefits of retirement plans is the ability to invest on a regular basis to take advantage of dollar-cost averaging and the tax-deferred—or with Roths, tax-free—growth.

Most plans will amortize your loans over a five-year term. Suppose you take a loan for $5,000. If the loan is 6 percent, the monthly payment will be just under $50 per paycheck if you’re paid bi-weekly. By increasing the payment you make to $75 per paycheck, you’ll cut the term down to three years and save about $600 in interest. While you are making the payments, the $75 per paycheck isn’t coming home with you to be spent. Once the loan is paid off, play catch-up with your plan by continuing to put the $75 per paycheck into your plan after it is paid off, in addition to the regular amount you were saving.

Another good way to rebuild your account after paying off a loan or taking a hardship withdrawal is to become careful about your money management. Only a little bit of care—and maybe some tough changes—can ensure you don’t have to take money out of your plan again. Use this checklist of things now, so you won’t need to dip into your plan again later:

The Least You Need to Know