If you have money in an ordinary statement or passbook savings account, you are probably getting about 3% less then if you put in CD's (certificate of deposits). CD's range from 6 month to years so get one that fits your needs and you'll be making more money each month in interest.
Pentagon Federal Credit Union gives great interest rates (over 6% quite often). You can join Pentagon Federal by joining an orgnization for 1 year (costs $25 and you will make that up in interest in no time). Once you have a Pentagon Federal account you can add IRAs or CDs without having to renew that organization membership. All the info is on their website.
You might also look into moving your savings into PayPal, which is currently paying 5.04% and your money is avaialble immediately if needed. Also, ING Direct is paying similar interest rates, with the same availability.
Online bank savings accounts also have competitive interest rates. Usually the rates are just as good as CDs but it works like a regular savings account so there's no penalty if you have to take the money out early and you can put in any amount at any time. hsbcdirect.com is the one I have used for the past few years.
CD's were a big help to me, I opened one whenever I could and had a string of them going. My passbook savings account was too easy to raid! so the CD's came in handy when I found a house to buy, they were the down payment! Great tip.
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