Should You Open a 5-Year CD in 2024?

Any time you're looking to open a certificate of deposit -- no matter the length of its term --  you need to make sure you can afford to part with your money for that long. There can be steep penalties for cashing out a CD before it comes due. So if you're not certain you're comfortable keeping your money tied up, a savings account may be a better choice. That way, you can access your money whenever you need to.

CDs come in a variety of terms, and for many banks, the longest amount of time you can open a CD is five years, or 60 months. You may be thinking of opening a five-year CD in 2024. But before you do, carefully consider the benefits and drawbacks.

The upside of opening a five-year CD

A CD will generally pay more interest than a savings account because you're committing to keeping your money where it is for a preset period. You also get the benefit of a guaranteed interest rate. It's for this reason that a five-year CD could especially make sense in 2024.

Inflation has been cooling over the past year. And because of that, there's talk of the Federal Reserve cutting rates in the new year. 

If the Fed goes this route, it could make personal loans less expensive to sign and credit card balances more manageable for those who owe money. But it could also result in lower interest rates across the board on savings accounts and CDs.

That's why you may want to lock in a five-year CD sooner rather than later. The generous rates banks are paying today are, frankly, not likely to last much longer. If you open a five-year CD in 2024, you can guarantee yourself a generous rate through 2029. By contrast, if you open a one-year CD in 2024, by 2025, you may find that rates are already much lower, making CDs less appealing on a whole.

The downside of opening a five-year CD

As mentioned, there can be costly penalties for cashing out a CD before it matures. At Capital One, the penalty for an early withdrawal from a five-year CD is six months' worth of interest. 

So let's say you have a $10,000 CD paying 4% a year. That's $400 in annual interest, but it also means that withdrawing your money early will cost you $200. And to be clear, you'll face that penalty whether you cash out your CD two months early or two years early. 

Meanwhile, a lot can happen in five years. You could fall in love, get engaged, and end up having a wedding to pay for. You could get a new job that requires you to relocate and absorb the cost. Or, you could have a baby, find yourself overwhelmed by the expense of child care, and end up desperate to tap your CD to cover your tab at daycare.

As such, you'll want to be really careful about opening a CD with a five-year term. While doing so may be a good way to snag a generous interest rate on your money without running the risk of losing out on principal like you would by investing, you run another risk. So think things through before moving forward with a CD that has you tying up your money for 60 months.