If you need to stay nearly-liquid, another option through Ally is the No-Penalty CD.

Withdraw your full balance and interest earned any time after the first 6 days of funding your CD.

Current rates are 4.55% APY, vs just 4% for just their Savings Account.

Speaking personally, I had 0 trouble at all with dissolving the no penalty CD exactly as-stated.

CIT Bank has a 5.0% APY savings account as long as you put at least $5k in. No reason to do a CD or put money in stocks when your time horizon is so short and the rates on HYSAs are so favorable.

You have lots of options:

• Treasuries like t-bills and TIPS
• ibonds
• CDs
• money market funds

Each of those are very liquid and low risk, though ibonds have a 1-year minimum holding period and most CDs have penalties for early redemption (doesn't apply to brokered CDs).

But the simplest option is to stick with a high yield savings account like Ally offers, or maybe a money market account (Ally offers one, many other banks do as well) or money market fund (pretty much any brokerage offers these). Those will keep your money very liquid, are dead simple, and you'll probably get like 80% of the interest compared to other options.

The high yield savings account is such a good option due to FDIC coverage + total liquidity AND SIMPLICITY since you need the money soon.

I personally wouldn't (and don't) complicate it trying to squeeze an extra $100 per year in interest. Your time and peace of mind are worth more than that.