Reply #17: Assuming the money is indeed in a CD....

[A HERETIC I AM]

The penalty for taking a withdrawal before the CD matures is usually a certain amount of the interest to be paid.

Example:

You put $1000.00 into a 5 year CD that pays 5% per year. That amounts to $50.00 in interest per year. If you wanted to surrender the CD after only one year, MOST banks charge no more than 6 months of interest, maybe one years worth, so in my hypothetical the charge would be $25.00 and perhaps as high as $50.00.

You would still be ahead by $25.00 or in the worst case, simply get your grand back.

You need to ask the bank exactly what the penalty will be. The longer the note, the higher the possible penalty. I honestly don't think the penalty would be so high as to actually eat into the principal. Either way, your parents are way ahead of where they started, so giving up a little potential interest payments at this point shouldn't trouble them too much.