The best 12 month CD rates may not be impressive overall today compared with historical rates. With the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates low for the near future, all types of deposits will not command the interest rates that were common before the recession. With nowhere to go but up, it may not make a lot of sense to lock in a rate for a long period of time. With most certificates of deposit, once you agree to a term like five years, you’ll be stuck with that rate even if new CDs have different rates.

This is a good approach in an environment where rates are high and possibly falling, but not a great idea when rates are low and possibly increasing. Nevertheless, you can often find better rates for CDs than for savings and money market accounts, so if you know you won’t need your savings for three months, six months, or a year, you might be able to achieve slightly higher interest payments from the bank. One drawback is there is often a penalty for accessing your cash before your term is up.

For the uninitiated, a certificate of deposit (CD) is considered a “time deposit.” CDs are generally considered cash or savings when it comes to asset allocation, but the “time” requirement presents a maturity date like a bond. This probably doesn’t matter for most individual savers and investors, but it does carry an important distinction for businesses whose investments are reported to regulatory authorities.

Like savings accounts, CD interest rates are compared using APY, annual percentage yield.

Here are some of today’s best 12 month CDs APY rates.

Discover Bank offers a hassle-free banking experience. I am a current, happy customer. Discover offers a rate of 0.90% APY as of April 2012.

Ally Bank offers two unique types of CDs in addition to a traditional CD. The Ally Bank Raise Your Rate CD has a feature that mitigates the risk of CD rates increasing while you’re locked in. You’ll have one opportunity during the term of the CD to lock in the market interest rate. The shortest term offered is 2 years, though, not 12 months. The rate for this product is 1.09% APY as of May 25, 2012.

Ally Bank also offers a No-Penalty CD, where you can withdraw your money at any time without a penalty. This term is slightly less than a year at 11 months, and the current rate is 0.91% APY as of May 25, 2012. Beyond these products, Ally Bank also offers a typical 12-month CD, subject to an early withdrawal penalty and no option to increase the interest rate mid-term, and the current rate for a 12-month high yield CD is 1.04% APY as of May 25, 2012.

Aurora Bank offers a 12 month CD with a minimum balance of $1,000. The Aurora Bank 12 month CD offers a rate of 0.15% APY as of May 25, 2012.

ING Direct is a mainstay of online banking and set the standard for all other online banks. While the bank has been recently sold to Capital One, ING Direct continues to offer state-of-the-art banking products and deliver excellent customer service. The interest rate for ING Direct’s 12 month CD is 0.50% APY as of May 25, 2012.

American Express is a relative newcomer to online banking, but their products are compelling to offer here. I like my account with American Express. This bank offers a wide range of terms for CDs from six months to 60 months, with many intermediate terms. The interest rate American Express offers on their 12 month CD is 0.55% APY as of May 25, 2012.

Sallie Mae Bank is also new to offering banking products, having been established in 2005. My account with Sallie Mae was the easiest to open, and my only criticism is the lack of integration with Quicken and online tracking tools. Sallie Mae offers a strong 0.90% APY on the 12 month certificate of deposit as of May 25, 2012.

Do you have a favorite bank, offering a compelling CD product, you’d like to see added to this list? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

If time deposits aren’t right for you and you’d like the ability to withdraw your money as needed, consider a high yield savings account from one of the best online banks. If you do like the idea of saving with CDs, consider creating a CD ladder to make the most of the highest CD rates.

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Mint.com added a new feature this week to its online personal finance management software. Like SmartyPig, the new focus is on savings goals. I’ve recently become a fan of SmartyPig’s approach to goal tracking, so I was interested in seeing Mint.com’s new feature.

In addition to tracking your account balances as any other personal finance management software does, Mint.com offers a selection of eight predefined goals to help users track their savings. Don’t worry if you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for. If none of the eight goals apply to your situation, you can write in your own.

Here are the goals suggested by Mint.com:

• Get out of debt
• Save for an emergency
• Save for retirement
• Buy a home
• Buy a car
• Save for college
• Take a trip
• Improve my home

You might want to offer a custom goal such as “save for a Phase One P65+ digital back” or “buy Apple.” I selected the predefined “buy a home” goal to take the new feature for a test drive. Mint.com offered a calculator to help me determine, based on my income, the price of an affordable house from both aggressive and conservative approaches. The website calculated my necessary down payment and suggested I open a dedicated savings account at either Sallie Mae Bank or American Express, two banks offering some of the highest interest rates available on a liquid savings account, to track my progress towards that goal.

It might not hurt to note that banks pay Mint.com for most customers who sign up for suggested savings accounts. Consumerism Commentary and many other websites receive similar referral fees in some cases, but on a significantly smaller scale.

As I already maintain an abundance of bank accounts, including an account at Sallie Mae, I chose to signify an existing account already tracked by Mint.com for this purpose: and account aptly named my “Orange House Fund,” currently located at ING Direct. “Orange” refers to the bank’s prominent color scheme, not the exterior paint color of my future abode.

Once the process was complete, I was presented with a progress meter, which you can see here. You can zoom in by clicking on the image.

The shift towards goal-oriented saving throughout the banking industry is a welcome change. This makes one’s personal finances more meaningful than just a number in a bank’s computer database. Rather than looking for a monetary milestone like $1,000,000 in the bank, a focus on goals gets to the heart of why we bother increasing our net worth. It’s important to think about real goals, not net worth itself. Money only has value when it is used for something.

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