This Is How Much Money You Can Make With $10,000 in a CD Ladder

Image source: The Motley Fool/Upsplash

A CD ladder can be an excellent way to combine financial flexibility with risk-free, steady income. A CD ladder consists of dividing your money into several CDs of staggered maturity terms. The idea is that every year, some of your money will mature and can be either used or reinvested, while the bulk of your money takes advantage of stable interest income.

With CD interest rates still at their highest levels since before the 2008 financial crisis, it's possible to set up a CD ladder that produces a relatively high income stream. Here's a look at how much you can make with $10,000 in a CD ladder, and a couple of things to keep in mind before you start opening accounts.

An example of a $10,000 CD ladder

The exact amount of money you can make from a CD ladder depends on the CDs you choose, as well as the prevailing interest rates at the time.

Depending on when you're reading this, CD rates could be significantly higher or lower than they are as of this writing (Aug. 9).

Having said that, here's an example of a CD ladder using some of the best readily available CD rates from our top online banks , and what it could mean for your income:

In this example, our CD ladder would produce a total of $440 in interest income over the course of one year.

A couple of things to keep in mind

First and foremost, if you're starting a CD ladder with any amount except exactly $10,000, simply multiply or divide the figures in the chart accordingly. As an example, if you want to create a $50,000 CD ladder, multiply the income by five to get a good idea of what you could make.

Second, keep in mind that this is just the CD ladder's first-year income, and it can get difficult to accurately project what you could make beyond one year. There are two main reasons for this:

• Your 1-year CD will mature, and you'll roll it into a new 5-year CD. There's no way to know what the prevailing 5-year CD rates will be at that point.
• With all your other CDs, you can either collect the interest income they earn to cover your expenses, or you can leave it in the account to compound. There's no right or wrong way to do it, but the option you choose will have an impact on your income in year two and beyond.

The bottom line

A CD ladder can be an excellent way to take advantage of the income visibility of long-term CDs, while still maintaining financial flexibility and a high level of current income.

Your income from a CD ladder depends on how much money you have, the bank(s) at which you open CDs, and the interest rate environment both now and in the future. But it can be a great way to set up a recurring income stream without locking all of your money up for several years.

We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .