As many know, the higher CD rate usually requires longer maturity, which reduce your cash flow flexibility. Actually there is some way to get higher rate AND at same time get reasonable cash flow for emergency purchase. This is called CD laddering technique. I just found a good tool on www.bankrate.com that will design the ladder for you, based on how much money you wanna deposit, what type of liquidity you expect and how much cash flow you wanna maintain. You can find it in the tools section.

Just find it pretty interesting and wanna share it. Enjoy!