CDs vs savings

Looking at Bankrate.com, it seems that most savings accounts offer 5% or above, whereas CDs offer less than 5%. I always thought CDs were a better investment than to keep your money in the savings accounts. Am I missing something here?

Those of who are not Investing Ninjas, and don't want to risk that bonus earned by so much blood and tears, what do you do with your money? Money Market? Do you at all get anytime to manage your money?

11 Comments
 

savings accounts can change their interest rates correct? low CDs rates would suggest banks believe the Feb will cut rates in the future

 

Get a savings account and buy some bonds. If the rate in your saving account decreases, your return on your bonds should increase.

Unless long run, then invest in stocks like Vonage.

 

Voice over net age? I just can't take it seriously. Not the concept of technology, but the marketing scheme of vonage, every phone company will offer the same setup soon and vonage will be gone (or bought out, which I suppose could earn a decent return for a SH). Still, probably smarter than telecoms in China recently.

Bonds aren't a bad idea at this point. The CD rates typically offer higher rates since they are more or less locked (though you can typically pull your money out for a penalty).

Example: ING Direct is offering 4.5% APY on a savings account, and 5.1% APY on a 1-YR CD.

Although banks can speculate that the fed will lower rates, if the CD rates are lower than the rates of savings accounts, would anyone ever purchase a CD? Think about it.

 
Best Response

I just realized I didn't quite address your question. In my opinion, money markets are only worthwhile if you truly need high liquidity since they generally require a high minimum balance and offer a bullshit return at most banks. Otherwise, just setup a savings account and tranfer to checking as needed or automatically. That is always safe, since you only risk the rates decreasing, but can never actually have a negative return.

If you are wanting to explore the possibility of returns that are higher than the typical 4-5% in a basic savings account, consider some sort of securities fund. Although I do not know the details about mutual funds offered by ING, I do know that they offer them and that it does not require you to do any research on your own. I'm not for or against ING, I just found them to be an appropriate example.

By all means, don't be silly and invest in a single stock.

 

Oh, btw...the 6% on HSBC is a 'new money' gimmick..lasting until april 30th, then it drops to 5.05%. I believe you forgot to mention that minor detail. By all means..shop around, most of the savings account offerings online are not much different from one another.

 

Obviously any smart investment portolio should be half Suze Orman recommdations and have Jim Cramer recommendations. How could you lose money off this logic?

 

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