If you’re interested in using CDs as a key part of your savings plan, you might consider a ladder, a common CD investing strategy. The process involves first buying several CDs with different terms so they’ll mature at regular intervals and then reinvest the money into longer-term CDs as the initial ones mature.
For example, if you are saving $5,000, you can place $1,000 in each of five CDs with maturity dates a year apart. When the 1-year CD matures, you would move that money into a new five-year CD, which would mature the year after your initial five-year CD does. Because a CD would mature each year, you could continue this process indefinitely until you needed the cash in any given year.