Cash vs Financing New Vehicle

Money market accounts are paying 4% at near zero risk. At that rate finance that MF’er. 4% at $40k is about a wash over 3 years but not having your money tied up in a vehicle is worth something too.

What kind of car??

What would you be re-financing if you pay cash? Can you get an auto loan for a car you purchased with cash already?

My back-of-a-napkin-math says that even if you financed and put the entire 40k in a CD making 4%, it would net you around $4,800 after 3 years. But here's the catch. Out of that $4,800, you're losing .9% on the interest charge AND you're paying tax on your interest earned AND you're not actually keeping all 40k invested for 36 months... You're having to pay at least $1,200/ month just in principal for 36 months. There's a good chance you come out negative on that deal vs just taking the upfront cash rebate.

As another person said, the flexibility of having that cash available to you for emergencies might be worth something, but just $ to $ it doesn't seem like a big gain (if any gain) to finance. But that's just a CD analysis, maybe you could invest it in Trumps new shitcoin and 70x your money