Last week, I told you I had hoped to answer a question about 401(k) plans in this column, but I didn't get around to it, due to sickness and a holiday and other issues.

Well, I'm going to make it up to you this week and next by finding answers for not one, not two, but three 401(k) questions!

As the stock market has continued its downward spiral, retirement-savings questions once again fill my inbox. This week, I'll share some nuts-and-bolts answers. And next week, we'll get philosophical.

The first question came from a reader named David.

"I have a little over $60,000 in a 401(k) plan with a former employer," David wrote. "I own a home which I owe about $230,000 on (and the home's value is around $330,000). I absolutely detest my career, but to find another would require a substantial pay cut. If I could tap into my 401(k) and roll it all into my mortgage, I would be so much less trapped by my career, and it would open me up to far greater options and contentment.

"I do not know of a way to tap into it without paying enormous taxes and penalties (since I am only 34 years old). Is there a way without taking out a loan against my 401(k)?"

For some help with David's question, I contacted Jeff Salisbury, principal at Independent 401(k) Advisors, a fee-only advisory firm with offices in Cache and Davis counties.

Jeff says that a 401(k) loan actually might be an option for David in this case, if he wants to avoid big taxes and penalties, but he needs to remember that he is dealing with two sets of rules: those set by the government and those set by his former employer.

"Companies are free, within constraints, to craft their own rules," Jeff says. "For example, the government allows companies to put a loan provision with a 401(k), but it's totally up to the company whether they have a loan provision at all."

So the first thing David needs to do is find out whether the company allows 401(k) loans. And even if it does, he might run into problems taking out such a loan, because he indicates the 401(k) is with a former, not current, employer.

As for finding another way to avoid taxes and penalties, while still accessing his 401(k) money, that's probably not going to happen for someone David's age, unless government rules change. And that brings us to our other nuts-and-bolts question, from Pat.