But a closer look shows money-market accounts are down a bit more than C.D.'s.

The minimum deposit is $500 for all except money-market accounts, which require $1,000.

"You can even have the assets sitting in a money-market account."

One approach is to put the money you're investing into a money-market account.

That way, you can switch your shares from an equity or bond fund to the money-market account and then write a check against the balance.

Such a cut, he said, will drive money out of money-market accounts and into stocks.

In years past, when interest rates on money-market accounts hovered in the 2 percent range, the amount of money lost was negligible.

My office now receives monthly $25 checks drawn from his money-market account.

Depositors in overnight money-market accounts - which total around $70 billion - have seen 80% of their assets frozen for 18 months.

Once she acquired a critical mass of cash, she moved up to a higher-interest, money-market account.