Does a 5 yr cd ladder make sense....

[gcgang]

KISS.

Don't fret (or something) with a 5 year CD ladder.

[copyright1997reloaded]

A secondary question (besides how much to ladder, how long to ladder, etc) is allocation. With CD and savings rates on the rise, I've been reducing my other fixed allocations (i.e. bonds) and have moved more towards FDIC insured instruments. I've also taken a bit of the cream off the top of my equity allocation and used this towards shorter term (1-3 year) CD's.

At 1% I wasn't too keen to have much tied up into traditional savings products. With things like 2.26% on a money market (Northern Bank Direct) and 3% on a 42 month CD (Connexus) these kinds of things are getting more interesting.

[jazz4cash]

I replaced my bond allocation (except munis) with CDs a few years ago. I arbitrarily count CDs > 2 yrs as “bonds” and anything shorter is “cash”. It’s all fixed income and it kinda auto rebalances as maturity approaches.