First Month of Amex Savings

Just about a month ago I opened a High Yield Savings Account with American Express where the interest is 1.30%. I opened the account with $5,130 and now have just over $6,600 in it. Of course I've been waiting for a month to go by so I could see what the interest earned would be, and it showed up today! A whopping $6.52!

I know this isn't a lot of money, but it is exciting because it's free money! So much more than if I had kept my cash at my local credit union where I was earning .25%.

The other option is to open a CD where the interest rate would be around 2.75% if I keep the money there for 5 years. I am thinking of doing this, but only with $1,000 or so. I hate the idea of keeping money tied up for 5 years when I don't have that much, just in case I need it.

One option I thought of was to set up a 2 year CD, 3 year, 4 year and then the 5 year. This way I would have access to my cash sooner, and then continue to set up 5 year CD's so that I will have a 5 year CD closing yearly and get the higher rates. This is all unless/until I decide to put money in a mutual fund where I would (hopefully) earn more interest.

Seems I have a lot to learn.