Tough question without knowing more but avoid spending your money on a depreciating asset (something that will be worth less a few years after you purchase it). Invest in something (yourself included) that will improve the trajectory of your life!

Happy to elaborate more if you have more questions!

The primary difference is taxation. Anything that is designated as a "Roth" is funded with money that has already been subjected to taxation by the government. All other retirement accounts are funded with money that has not been taxed by the government, YET.

The government will get their taxes from those pre-tax accounts when you withdrawal the funds in retirement.

You don't have to answer this publicly but if I were in your shoes, here are the tough questions I would be asking myself:

Do I have other things I will need to purchase through debt (most notably a home) in the next few years? Is the car the only problem or is full bankruptcy a better LONG TERM solution? What other controllable expenses (credit card payments, non-essential spending, subscriptions, etc) do I need to get under control? What does my income growth look like for the next few years and how do I change that if it isn't growing? How much has to change for me to be able to consistently save money every month?

I also think that everyone should read the book The Richest Man in Babylon . It is a super easy read but teaches some great fundamentals on which to build your financial future.

A will isn't sufficient to do this, but it isn't complicated either. The way to exercise the most control of your assets after death is through a trust. You work with an attorney to establish a trust that lists how you want your assets to be passed on. You will also pick a person (called a trustee) who is in charge of executing your wishes after death, for a reasonable fee. You would list all beneficiaries as the trust you create so that the trust owns all assets after your death. At that point, the trustee will be able to sell any investments/assets that need to be liquidated and once the cash is available, the trustee will write a check as you have directed.

You can also list a bank or an attorney as your trustee. This is a good idea if you don't have a trusted person to handle this for you at death. There is more oversight when you have an entity like a bank serving as trustee, although the cost tends to be higher too.

I would also be curious about the interest rate on the loan and the number of months for the financing?

I'm sorry that you are in this spot, it sucks and candidly the options aren't great. But it also isn't the end of the world! Will your situation be resolved completely once the car is gone? I think you owe yourself an honest look at your total financial picture so you can address any other issues and be able to rebuild in a healthy manner moving forward.

One further point to this is that there are brokered CD's that offer full liquidity and higher rates. Brokered CD's function the same (guaranteed rate, FDIC insured, etc) but there is a market for them to be sold if you need your cash back. There is interest rate risk (as rates go up, the underlying value will go down. But if you hold to maturity then you receive a full return of your principal) but with short durations, the impact is negligible.

I am seeing 3-month CD rates north of 4% and the 1 & 2 year CDs are at ~4.65%.