I've been a mac convert for about 5 years now. For a living I run a banking site that finds high cd rates and compares them to savings accounts. I also write blog posts about checking account promotions and online banking deals. A common strategy for people who get certificates of deposit is to ladder your cds so that a group of cds don't all expire at the same time. In this sense it's like a ladder with steps and each step is further away from the ground. A CD ladder has multiple cds that expire further than the previous cd. This can be done to avoid low cd rates. For example you could have $4,000 and take out a 1 year, 2 year, 3 year, and 4 year cd. So every year you would have a cd mature. If you have any financial questions you can PM me for advice.