Retirement & Financial Planning Report

If you don’t want to put all of your money into one low-rate CD, consider a “CD

ladder”: divide your cash equally among CDs that will mature every six months

for the next five years. Each time a CD matures, you can reinvest in a

five-year CD, maintaining the length of your ladder.


Over time, this will increase your blended yield because short-term, low-yield

CDs are replaced by five-year CDs paying higher yields. You’re protected from

sudden dips in interest rates, because only a small portion of this money comes

due at one time, yet this constant flow of redemptions and reinvestments offer

you the chance to get higher yields when rates move up.


For each CD maturity, you can shop around for the highest yield, insured by the

federal government up to $100,000 per account.