Advice? I sold my mutual fund. What to do with the $ now?

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. You have numerous choices.

And which way to go depends on your tolerance for risk as much as anything.

If you absolutely do not want any risk whatsoever, just stay in cash, but even then you'll lose to inflation.

Since this is an IRA, liquidity isn't really an issue. Having said that, there isn't much you can invest in that won't be "Trade Plus 3" for settlement anyway. As mentioned above, Treasuries are excellent from a safety standpoint, and they settle same day.

Depending on your IRA custodian (Regular full service broker/dealer as opposed to a bank with limited choices), you may be able to access securities like REIT's, Closed End Funds, Brokered CD'S, individual bonds, Unit Investment Trusts, Master Limited Partnerships/MLP Funds etc. In short, plenty of relatively safe ways to earn income with low risk of loss of principal.

If your goal presently is interest and/or dividends coupled with safety, then there are literally scores of available choices.

No matter what you decide, the key is to be able to sleep at night! Stay within your risk tolerance, be sure what it is you are looking to do and have patience.