[laserboy]

The fund should be more liquid than the CDs.

Depending on the CD, you may be required to hold it for the full year or pay penalties to cash it in before the year is up. With the fund, you should be free to trade it after a specified short term holding period.

Regarding ING, I understand that ING is very strict about keeping overhead to a bare minimum. For example, if you call customer service too many times, they will close your account because you are too high maintenance for them.