Answer: Don’t use retirement funds to pay off credit cards. Period.

If it pains you to think about the interest you’re paying, good. That may keep you from running up more debt.

But you’ll pay a lot more in the long run by raiding your retirement fund. First, you’ll lose one-third or more of your savings ($8,000 or more) to taxes and penalties. Then you’ll lose all the future, tax-deferred returns your 401(k) could have earned. You can figure that the $24,000 will easily cost you more than $100,000 in lost future retirement income.

A better approach is to cut your expenses so you can put more money toward paying off your debt. An extra $500 a month could shave a year or more off the time you’re in debt and save you a considerable amount in interest.

We in the media need to make that clear. We’ve been excoriating Congressional bungling and inaction so loudly that many ordinary people are getting the impression the world is about to end.

It’s not. A default would have some seriously bad affects—including raising the interest rates on the national debt that everyone professes to care so much about. One of the basics of money management is that if you’re in debt, you want to keep your interest rates as low as possible to get out of debt faster. Doing something that makes your interest rates rise is just stupid. But right now, “stupid” is Congress’ middle name.

So what can you do with your own money to prepare in case we do default? My thoughts:

Move your cash from money markets to FDIC-insured bank accounts. The average interest rate on money market mutual funds is .25%, and they aren’t federally insured. The risk that money funds would “break the buck” and lose principle is probably minimal, but you’re not being compensated for taking any risk, so you’d be better off in an online bank account paying 1% or so.

Don’t invest in gold. Gold is a hugely speculative investment. The gold bubble has been growing for years, and the last time this happened the crash was pretty awful. In fact, the price of gold still hasn’t climbed back to its previous 1980 peak in inflation-adjusted terms. Buying gold or gold mining shares right now is gambling, not investing.

Make sure you’re diversified. Bailing out of the stock market isn’t a good choice. Congress will get its act together eventually. If it doesn’t do so before the default, it will do so quickly afterward, once the stock market plunges. Either way, if you’re out of the market you’ll miss the relief rally. In any case, trying to time the market is all but impossible. If you’re invested in a broadly-diversified mix of stock and bond mutual funds, you should be able to hang on for the bumpy ride. (One way to get quickly diversified is to put your money into a “lifestyle” or “target date” fund, that does all the diversification and rebalancing for you. Most workplace retirement plans and brokerages offer these.) But remember that money you’ll need within five years should be in a safe, easily accessible bank account, not invested in the stock market. That’s true under any market conditions, but if you’ve been taking chances you shouldn’t, now is the time to correct that.

Answer: Let’s be clear: You have no assets. Your mother does, and she may plan to give those to you, but those plans could change. She may well need her money for living expenses and long-term care, which could easily eat up that nest egg.

So you need to start saving on your own for retirement. You may think you can’t live on less than you are now, but make no mistake: You’ll be living on significantly less if you don’t save. Your Social Security benefit, if you retire at 66, will be around $1,000 a month.

If you have a workplace retirement plan such as a 401(k), start contributing to that. If you don’t, put money aside in an individual retirement account. If your adjusted gross income is under $27,750, you may qualify for a tax credit that can help you, known as the Retirement Savings Contributions Credit or Savers Credit. (You’ll use Form 8880 to figure the credit; visit http://www.irs.gov for more information.)

Answer: You probably would have more investing choices with an IRA, but you might also wind up paying more. A good, large-company 401(k) plan often offers access to institutional funds that charge less (sometimes much less) than what a retail investor would pay for a similar investment through an IRA. If your new employer’s plan is a good one, transferring the money there is often the simplest and most cost-effective solution. Or you may be able to leave the money where it is, if you like the plan. Only if neither option is palatable, or if you’re convinced that you can find better, lower-cost options on your own, does an IRA rollover become the clear best choice.

Answer: You two appear to be nicely on track with your finances, but if you want to retire early or otherwise boost your retirement funds you have several options.

The easiest would be to simply have your husband contribute more to his account, but you also could open a joint or individual brokerage account and invest for retirement through that. You wouldn’t get a tax break for your contributions, but your gains could qualify for favorable capital gains rates.

Another option is to start a sideline business and contribute some of your profits to a simplified employee pension, or SEP, IRA. Self-employed workers have several options for retirement savings, including solo 401(k)s and even traditional pension plans, but the SEP is an easy way to start.

Answer: Generally, you’ll want to make sure you’re on track for retirement before paying down a mortgage. Your priority usually should be contributing at least enough to your 401(k)s to get the full company match, and then contributing the maximum to Roth IRAs. This puts money in retirement “buckets” that get different tax treatment — withdrawals from 401(k)s are typically taxable as income, while Roth IRA withdrawals typically are tax free — and that allows you to have more control over your tax bill in retirement.

If you have additional money to contribute to your goals, you’ll have to decide whether to pay down your mortgage, put more into your 401(k) or contribute to a taxable account earmarked for retirement. (This latter option would give you yet another tax bucket — one where you can qualify for capital gains tax rates.)

It’s good to be mortgage-free when you stop work, but if your retirement savings aren’t adequate, you should be bolstering them now. Ten years from retirement is a good time to consult with a fee-only financial planner to discuss your individual situation, reality-test your retirement plans and fine-tune your investments.

Answer: You don’t say how old you are, how much you’ve saved for retirement already or what your other debts are. All those factors help determine where your savings should go.

You’re smart to be contributing to a 401(k) and getting the full company match. You can use an online retirement calculator, like the one at ChooseToSave.org, to see if you’re saving enough. If you’re not, you can boost your contributions.

If you’re on track for retirement, the next step is to pay off any toxic debt such as credit cards. (Toxic debt is any debt that carries high or variable rates and that erodes, rather than enhances, your wealth.) Once that’s paid off, you can focus on building up your emergency fund. In general, it’s smart to have at least three months’ worth of expenses in a savings account to be tapped in case of real emergency, such as a job loss.

Answer: At that age, you wouldn’t face tax penalties for early withdrawal and you’re probably giving up less in future gains than someone who is younger.

But dipping into a 401(k) to pay unsecured debts may still be a bad move if there is any chance you’ll wind up in Bankruptcy Court, because retirement funds are protected from creditors. It’s also unwise if you would be withdrawing a large part of your nest egg, because this money has to last you the rest of your life.

A visit with a fee-only planner can help you decide whether using your retirement money this way makes sense. You can get referrals from www.garrettplanningnetwork.com or www.napfa.org.

Answer: Why do you think premature withdrawals from retirement funds are so heavily penalized? And why do you suppose retirement funds are protected from creditors in Bankruptcy Court?

It’s because lawmakers have decided that there are some things worse than reneging on your debts, and one of them is an impoverished old age.

Yes, if you take on a debt, you should do your utmost to pay it back out of your current income. If you need to sell otherwise-unprotected assets to do so, then do so.

But tapping retirement funds prematurely is rarely smart, and it’s particularly unwise if there’s a possibility that you’ll wind up in Bankruptcy Court. Advising people of that fact is a long way from encouraging them to file for bankruptcy.

By the way, few people who have been through it would call bankruptcy an “easy way out.” Many people struggle with the decision, put off filing for too long and drain the very resources that could have been protected, only to end up having to throw in the towel anyway.

Answer: No, no, no.

In case that wasn’t clear: No.

Of all the dumb financial moves you can make, raiding retirement funds to pay off credit card debt ranks near the top. You’ll pay penalties and taxes that typically equal one-quarter to one-half of any withdrawal, plus you lose the future tax-deferred returns that money could make. If you’re 30 years from retirement, that $50,000 withdrawal would cost you $500,000 in lost retirement income, assuming an 8% average annual return.

The fact that you have that much debt puts you at high risk of bankruptcy. In bankruptcy, your unsecured debt can be wiped out or reduced, while your retirement funds would be protected from creditors.

If you can’t figure a way to pay off your debt without raiding your retirement, you need to make two appointments: one with a legitimate credit counselor (visit the National Foundation for Credit Counseling at www.nfcc.org) and another with a bankruptcy attorney.