You're definitely catching on! And if it makes you feel any better, you're having the same questions we ALL do initially! =) I didn't want to provide info about accessing the funds early, because it can be massively overwhelming until you understand the basic ideas of the accounts, period!
Okay, part 1: "no access until I'm 60?"
-There is a fancy thing called the "roth pipeline" that lets you access funds early for early retirement if you plan your affairs appropriately. I'll admit that we're getting into the areas I don't understand as well, so I can't explain them as well. (Well, I have understood them, gone, "yup that's what we'll do", then promptly forgotten because we're a long way from FIRE (financial independence, retire early). But I have links! This is where we get into what is called "drawdown strategy".
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/how-to-withdraw-funds-from-your-ira-and-401k-without-penalty-before-age-59-5/Part 2: Roth or traditional IRA?
The mustachian tax guide:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/taxes/the-mustache-tax-guide-(u-s-version)/There's a section in there called "traditional and roth IRAs". So, this is where it might be useful to ask someone better versed, but it seems *to me* like you would benefit most from traditional. The thing is, it takes a lot of forecasts of things that are just so hard to tell when you're very young. What will your tax rate be when you retire? Higher or lower than now? Etc. When DH and I were earning ~$55k, we opted for traditional. As our earnings have grown, and we only qualify for some of the deduction for the traditional, we do part traditional and the rest roth. When you get a high enough income, you don't qualify for the roth anymore though.
Here's a good article about it all:
http://www.madfientist.com/traditional-ira-vs-roth-ira/ It explains it *way* better than I'm doing, haha.
Part 3: I could die at any time.
-Welcome to rolling into your mid 20s, when your brain starts straddling the line between nihilistic YOLO!!!! and being like 'wait I should have a plan... maybe'. It's an uncomfortable spot psychologically. I address this specifically because honestly, you can learn every bit and scrap of investing info there is, but if you follow the traditional young man psychology, you cannot fathom yourself as old. You expect to die young, simply because you cannot conceive of old age. And so why plan for it? But statistically, you will live until you're old. And you need to plan accordingly. Obviously don't make your life suck now for the hope of tomorrow (see: "deferred life plan"). But as it seems you've been realizing, the happiness that comes from throwing money at binge drinking is incredibly fleeting (I've been there, I'm not judging in the least, to be clear!). This actually has some physiological underpinnings, by the way. Alcohol is a depressant, and that's not an arbitrary term. Among other things, frequent use of alcohol (particularly with a binge intake model) tends to lessen life satisfaction overall. Which I am way too lazy to cite right now, but I'll dig it up tomorrow if anyone is curious about it and can't find the info on their own.
Anyway, I ran into this constantly with my ex. Anytime anything got too uncomfortable to think about, he would drop into "well, I'll probably die young anyway". When pressed, the most he would say was "I can just tell. I can just feel it". Unsurprising considering the fatalism, he joined the military (and a boots on the ground branch, no less). He just honestly couldn't think ahead to the future, it was too uncomfortable. So when I see someone retreat back into the "well we can die anytime", it seems that's because that's the self-protective option. Yeah we need to keep a tiny bit of that perspective, or we become boorish, but if we actually let that view permeate us? We become incredibly self-destructive. If everyone was waiting with bated breath to get smashed by a car tomorrow, no one would build or do great things, you know? Because those take time and faith (in the non-theistic sense of the word).
Sorry for getting all esoteric there. I'm a nurse, and I had to fight through a lot of that nihilism in nursing school, and come around to a comfortable and stable place with it. But I think most of us work through it and end up in a healthy place, where we try to build a future but still practice mindfulness about the joys in our lives now, and cultivating those.
Keep the questions coming =) I literally keep a file of useful links for case studies.