How to Invest in CD with Proper Knowledge?

The best thing about long term CD investment is that the interest rates are high. Short term strategy will attract even smaller interest rates. A Certificate of Deposit (CD) investment has always been a reserve for the wealthy but things are changing. If you are the type of investor who is future oriented, you will want your investment to earn better interest over time. CDs are good for long term investments and the risks are negligible. In order to ascertain whether or not CD is right for your investment portfolio, you need to look at two distinct factors:

• Time Horizon: As an investor, there are times you are short of cash.  With CD investments, you need to determine when you will cash out. It is recommended that you cash out when the investment has matured, otherwise you will be attracting unnecessary penalties which could be detrimental to your investment strategy.

• Interest Rates: The interest rates can be used as an indicator on just how long you are suppose to keep the money in the CD. If inflation rates are sky rocketing, it is advisable that you go for short term CD. If inflation is falling, long term CDs will be the best option since the interest rates are high.

Before you decide to invest your money in CD, you need to consider:

• Annual percentage rates (APR) - This is rate is usually pegged to the bank that you are buying the CD from. You can have a look at cd rates prophet to compare the rates.

• Annual percentage yield (APY) - This basically shows you the CD potential earnings in multiyear life considering the compounding rates.
Compounding is a mathematical computation process where the interest rates are charged based on the total earnings of a given set period. It could be monthly, quarterly or annually.

Once you have all this knowledge in mind, the next big question is on which term to choose. There are generally two terms. If you are a long term investor, you can go for long term CDs. If you depend on your CD investment, then you can opt for short term.

Having chosen the type of investment that suits you, next step is to assess the rates. This you can do by going through different banks. You can always use the internet to your advantage.

Laddering

This is a risk free strategy that enables you accesses the cash even if inflation rates are soaring high. An example is let’s said you have $30,000. By laddering, you will only be investing $10,000 of the total investable amount. It goes year by year and you will be able to cash out once one part of the investment matures.

With laddering, you do not have to worry about penalties because the system was invented for such eventualities. The interest rates are favorable since it is a long term investment which has been divided into segments. You can always have a chance of even better interest rates if you were to re-invest the profits.