Ladder your certificates so money matures regularly while capturing longer-term rates.
This calculator builds a share certificate ladder across rungs maturing one to N years out and shows the blended yield.
Laddering splits your money across several certificates that mature in different years, so a portion comes due each year and can be reinvested. This tool spreads your total evenly across the rungs and interpolates each rung's rate between your one-year and five-year APY inputs. The result gives you regular access to cash while still capturing longer-term rates.
The blended yield is the weighted average return across all rungs, giving you a single number to compare against a single certificate. Because longer rungs usually pay more, a ladder often yields more than keeping everything in short-term certificates. It also reduces the risk of locking your entire balance in right before rates rise.
A ladder gives you a maturing rung each year for liquidity while still earning longer-term rates on the rest. It also smooths out the effect of changing interest rates over time.
The tool interpolates each rung's rate on a straight line between your one-year and five-year APY inputs. Actual credit union rates may differ from this estimate.
Many people reinvest each maturing rung into a new longest-term certificate to keep the ladder going. You can also take the cash if you need it that year.
See the exact formula and a worked example on our methodology page.