Generally speaking, your eligibility to borrow from your retirement funds depends on several qualifiers: your present employment, the value of your 401(k), and your current age.Previously, you were allowed to withdraw the lesser of either $50,000 or 50% of your vested balance from either your 401(k) or IRA, but the pandemic brought about some changes to those regulations."During COVID-19, the government increased borrowing limits to allow qualifying individuals to withdraw up to $100,000 from their retirement balance," according to Nishank Khanna, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Clarify Capital.Another advantage of borrowing from your retirement over another loan arrangement is that you are borrowing from yourself. While you are required to pay interest on the money borrowed, that interest is added to your own retirement account.Ian Wright, CEO of Bequests, a retirement and end-of-life planning information portal, says he has received several queries about tapping into retirement savings during the pandemic."Generally, it makes sense to borrow from a retirement plan because the borrowing and payment processes are easy," he says. "It doesn't need a credit check." He warns, however, that you will miss out on some growth if your balance is lower. "What you give up is the growth of your money through compounding interest," he says.