re: are cd's a good idea?

As others have said, with interest rates so low, they're not good investments. However, it may be worthwhile to throw your emergency fund into a CD at a local credit union (assuming their rates are higher than what you can find with online savings accounts). This allows the emergency fund to keep up with inflation a bit better than with a regular savings account. The downside is that you'll forfeit some interest if you need to pull the money prior to maturity.

That's about the only way that I'd see it as worthwhile to have a CD right now.