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If you have $55,000 saved in the bank now, you have plenty of options to explore. You can use it to pay for a new vehicle or as a down payment for real estate. You can invest it in stocks, bonds or alternative assets like precious metals. Or you can simply elect to safeguard it and grow it in a select savings account. And that may be the best decision to make in the economic climate millions of savers find themselves in this July.
With inflation elevated, borrowing costs expensive and pay for workers lagging, now may be the time to shore up your financial protections while looking for ways to grow the interest on your savings. While that’s not really achievable with a traditional savings account, which comes with a variable rate averaging just 0.38% right now, it can be with a certificate of deposit (CD) account. Rates on most CD terms sit over 4% currently, and they’re fixed, allowing savers to earn a guaranteed return on their money, which is a major advantage in today’s unpredictable economy.
Before getting started, however, it helps to know the interest-earning capacity a CD account of this size currently offers savers. Below, we’ll do the math tied to nine different CD terms.
See how much interest you could be earning with a CD account here.
How much interest can a $55,000 CD account earn if opened now?
With CD rates hovering close to 4% no matter the term, there’s no shortage of ways to earn a respectable return on a $55,000 deposit now. Here’s how much interest you’d earn if you open an account this July, calculated against some of the top rates available for nine different terms:
- $55,000 3-month CD at 3.95%: $535.26 upon maturity
- $55,000 6-month CD at 4.10%: $1,116.17 upon maturity
- $55,000 9-month CD at 4.00%: $1,641.88 upon maturity
- $55,000 1-year CD at 4.15%: $2,282.50 upon maturity
- $55,000 18-month CD at 4.20%: $3,501.13 upon maturity
- $55,000 2-year CD at 4.16%: $4,671.18 upon maturity
- $55,000 3-year CD at 4.15%: $7,135.60 upon maturity
- $55,000 5-year CD at 4.20%: $12,561.18 upon maturity
- $55,000 10-year CD at 4.30%: $28,797.62 upon maturity
With accounts elevated, then, and this deposit amount strong, savers can easily earn hundreds of dollars on their money with even the shortest term on this list. But the significant earnings will be accumulated over time, with savers positioned to earn more than $4,600 with a 2-year option and close to $29,000 with a 10-year version.
Evaluate all of your terms carefully, then, to find one that meets your needs and goals. Just be careful to only open an account that you can afford to see through to its maturity date, as an early withdrawal fee on an account of this size will be costly.
Get started with a CD account online now.
The bottom line
A $55,000 CD account won’t be the right choice for every saver, especially when there are so many other homes for your money, whether it be in an alternative savings vehicle or an investment. But with the interest-earning potential here robust and your principal protected, a CD account of this size may have a role in your broader savings strategy, both now and in the months and years ahead.