Forest Hill's Jeff Judge in MarketWatch: The CD rate math most savers skip

By Jeff Judge, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®, CLU®, Managing Partner, Chesapeake Financial Planners, Forest Hill, MD.

Banks are competing hard for deposits right now, and it shows. CDs advertising 4%, 5%, or higher are everywhere, and a lot of savers are asking the same question: should I move my money to chase the higher number?

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When MarketWatch asked me about this, my answer was that the rate difference is only half the math. Move $50,000 from a 3.8% CD to a 4.3% one and you pick up about $250 a year before tax, closer to $175 after tax for most retirees. That is the entire reward for closing an account, opening a new one, and locking your cash up again. The bigger question is whether that money even belongs in a CD in the first place.

For retirees in Harford County and across the Baltimore metro, this comes up constantly. I talk with clients in Bel Air and Fallston who have built a small collection of CDs at different banks chasing rates over the years, with no plan tying them together. Commuters heading into Towson ask the same thing about their emergency fund. The cash usually has a job to do, bridging the gap before Social Security starts, covering a year of expenses, funding a near-term goal, and that job should decide where it sits, not the advertised rate.

The takeaway: before you move cash for a better CD rate, ask what that money is actually for. A slightly higher rate on the wrong account is not a win.

This piece builds on "4%, 5%, higher? Amid Fed rate hikes, here's how to do the math on whether a higher CD rate is really worth it," in MarketWatch (September 2026).

Jeff Judge, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®, CLU®, is Managing Partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners in Forest Hill, MD. Book an intro call.