CD laddering is a great way to protect yourself from changing interest rates and getting more interest by purchasing longer term CDs...
However... for those that have done this (I haven't), isn't it a pain to have to keep closing a matured CD and opening a new one? What's worse, don't you have a lot of time where you aren't making any money between waiting for the check to arrive from the closed CD and opening a new CD? I just closed a matured CD from E*trade and they told me on the phone it would be 7-10 days to get it in the mail! If you add that up over all your CDs that are maturing once a month, that is a lot of time you aren't making any money. You can do wire transfers from E*Trade but they charge you!
And to the original poster, you might want to consider investing in
SPY (for conservative investors).
Here is a two year chart. You will probably make 7-8% per year without much risk.