What's a good money CD rate?

I have about 50K I want to play around with. I'm not interested in taking a risk as in buying stocks or anything similar. I'm thinking about a 6 or 12-month CD. What is considered a good rate?

Feel free to suggest other ways for investment if you know any.

Thanks!

I live in Southern Cali.

You'll get the best rate at ING Direct. 5.15% maybe. I would advise you against putting all $50,000 in one CD. You might consider a CD Ladder, which is where you might put $10,000 in a 6 month, $10,000 in a 9 month, $10,000 in a 12 month and so on. This would provide income every few months and free up the entire amount from not being touched for a long period of time.

I have gotten 5.25% at Amtrust Bank and 5.3% at Huntington Bank. Rates vary depending on where you live. I would suggest you look up the websites of your local banks for their "promo" cd rates.

check out bankrate.com. you'll find alot of info. depending on how you want to manage your money. don't put all 50K in one account. sorry, had to edit. just wanted to tell you to open an IRA. even just half of your money. i have it with janus and it will be invested in money market.

I would look into internet money market accounts. They are safe, and pay rates about as high as CDs. The best thing about internet money market accounts is that you are usually allowed up to three withdrawals per period. CDs don't give you any access to the money until the maturity date (unless you want to be penalized). I read about this one in the wall street journal:

http://zionsbank.com/internet_mma.jsp?le...

But I am sure you can find one offered by a local bank. The one that I have is paying about 5.1% right now. It all depends on how much access you want to have to your investment.

Good Luck!