I own a bank rate website and I get a lot of questions about cd investment strategies. Let me introduce to you the barbell strategy. The barbell strategy is when you invest in short term and long term cds in order to acheive the best cd rates. You also might want to consider storing money in a savings account if shorter term rates are particularly bad. They have an edge over checking accounts because they bear interest, and they have an edge over cds because you don't have to lock in your money. When looking for rates an online bank will probably have the best rates because they don't have the overhead that brick and mortar banks have.