How much interest will a $50,000 1-year CD earn if opened this July?

Growing your savings isn’t just about how much you set aside. It’s also about where you keep it, especially in today’s savings landscape. With interest rates still elevated, savers who have accumulated a substantial cash balance have an opportunity to earn meaningful returns without taking on market risk. But while both certificates of deposit (CDs) and high-yield savings accounts continue to advertise attractive yields, deciding where to park that money isn’t always a straightforward process.

That’s especially true right now, with the interest rate outlook remaining uncertain. The Federal Reserve has held rates steady since the start of the year, helping savings yields remain competitive, and it appears unlikely, at least for now, that the Fed will lower its benchmark rate, as inflation is still high and climbing. However, deposit rates will eventually gradually decline once borrowing costs finally begin to ease, so savers should still choose their deposit account options wisely.

And, if you’ve saved $50,000, even small differences in annual percentage yields (APYs) can translate into noticeable differences in earnings over the course of a year. So, how much would today’s top 1-year CDs earn compared to a leading high-yield savings account — and what are you giving up in exchange for those returns?

Compare your top CD and savings account options online today.

How much interest will a $50,000 1-year CD earn if opened this July?

The top 1-year CD rates are currently clustered between roughly 4.11% and 4.15%, depending on the institution and how much shopping you’re willing to do. Assuming no early withdrawal penalties or account fees eat into the balance, here’s what a $50,000 deposit into a CD account would earn by maturity:

• $50,000 1-year CD at 4.11%: $2,055.00 upon maturity
• $50,000 1-year CD at 4.15%: $2,075.00 upon maturity

On the higher end, a saver would collect a little more than $2,000 in interest for essentially doing nothing but waiting out the term — money that would otherwise sit idle in a low- or no-interest account. Spread across 365 days, that works out to roughly $5.68 per day in guaranteed earnings, which is locked in thanks to the CD’s fixed rate, regardless of what the Fed decides to do with rates between now and next July.

See how much you could earn with a CD account here.

How much interest will a $50,000 high-yield savings account earn over the next year?

A high-yield savings account paying 4.10% would produce very similar results on paper: A $50,000 deposit would earn approximately $2,050.00 over 12 months at that rate, assuming it held steady the entire time. That’s within roughly $25 of what the 4.11% CD would generate and about $25 less than the higher CD rate — a narrow enough gap that the decision often comes down to factors beyond the numbers themselves.

The critical distinction, though, is that a high-yield savings rate is variable, not fixed. That means if the Fed were to raise rates in response to persistent inflation, savings account rates could climb along with it, potentially outpacing what the CD locked in this month. 

On the other hand, if rates were to fall, that savings account yield would fall right along with them, while the CD would keep paying its original rate all the way to maturity regardless of what happens elsewhere in the economy. A high-yield savings account also preserves access to the funds without penalty, which matters for the savers who think they may need part of that $50,000 before the year is up.

The bottom line

A $50,000 deposit in a 1-year CD this July stands to earn somewhere between roughly $2,055 and $2,075 by next summer, depending on the rate secured. A comparable high-yield savings account would land close behind at around $2,050, with the added flexibility of a variable rate and penalty-free access to the cash. 

Neither choice is objectively superior, though. The right one depends on whether you value the certainty of a locked-in rate or the flexibility (and rate risk) that comes with a variable one. What’s clear either way is that $50,000 left in a traditional savings account, which is still averaging well under 1% nationally, represents money left on the table that could otherwise be working considerably harder over the next 12 months.