Take money lying in your savings account, which is probably earning only one-half of one percent interest right now and consider putting this into a Certificate of Deposit (CD). Many are currently earning about five-percent interest, and these investments are federally-insured through the FDIC up to $100,000 just like your savings account. So, no additional risk of losing your principal, but you receive up to ten times the rate of return!

Depending on the amount of money you have in savings, you may consider "laddering" your CD investments. What the term "laddering" means is simply dividing the total amount up into smaller portions with varying maturity dates.

For example: instead of having one $25,000 CD mature in twelve months, you could break it up into five $5,000 CDs maturing in three months, six months, one year, two years, three years, and five years.

Why ladder?

There are a few benefits to laddering:

First, if you need to cash in a CD, you take a smaller penalty -- just on the amount within the one smaller CD -- or a portion of the overall amount. Second, if rates decline, you have only a portion of your money maturing at any one time to invest at the then lower rate. Third, psychologically, people seem to keep the CDs in place -- or spend only the portion that matures -- as opposed to indulging big by spending everything when it matures in one large lump sum.

But what about early withdraw penalties?

Penalties vary, but many early withdraw penalties are only one to three months worth of interest. So, the world does not necessarily end if you do need the money for an emergency before the maturity date.

Although transferring money into CDs may not be sexy, it is a simple way to make much more on your savings.