If this is money that you don't want to risk at all (because if you lose some you won't be able to buy the house you want) it's gonna be tough to earn all that

If this is money that you don't want to risk at all (because if you lose some you won't be able to buy the house you want) it's gonna be tough to earn all that much interest in just a year. As lbotos says, you might do a bit better with a CD than your bank account but not by all that much. If you can stomach a bit of risk you might consider buying something like Vanguard's Total Bond Market ETF. https://www.google.com/finance?q=BND https://www.google.com/finance?q=BND