What is the highest returning, safest investment vehicle on the market?

I recently sold a house and made a good profit. I am going to take my time getting back into the market to see where it goes. As I sit on the side lines, what is the safest, highest returning investment vehicle for me to put my house proceeds into? I want to make sure I don't lose any of this money, have easy access to it and maximize my return on it. CD's, Bonds, Money Market, other???

Your safest bet is T-bills. Tax free from state and local taxes. Extremely liquid. Can very easily be sold in the after market if you should need the cash. They come in several varieties. 3 month and 6 month are the most popular. Buy the 6 month and federal taxes on the income will not be due until the end of next year. You can buy them directly from the federal government but you have more flexibility if you buy them through a stock broker. Fidelity does not charge any commission if you buy them on line at auction. They are auctioned every Monday.

A bicycle, what else.

higher reward = higher risk

a good safe investment is highly rated bonds, money market accounts (if you have enough money), or CD's

a slightly higher risk investment but still pretty safe over the long term with decent potential earnings are conservative mutual funds.

safe and short term means low interest...but 6 month cd's will leave you reasonably liquid when real estate settles...

Any market-based investment is prone to losses. A CD will be locked up for 6mos or more and there's no guarantee the cash will be there if the bank goes under (FDIC is more broke than Social Security). You'll have to make a decision, but spreading the money between Money Market Fund with low fees and mix of CDs with different banks likely the best answer. Try AIG or ING online

It depends on just how safe and how much return you are willing to have (I mean there is safe like corporate bonds, very safe like government backed stuff and then there is super duper really completely safe like gold).

For me I'd advise going for a corporate bond that expires in a few years - a then hold the bonds to maturity. Make it from a corporation that you know will not declare bankruptcy (like McDonalds or Microsoft or someone). I means its still possible even a really great company could declare bankruptcy but if its a huge company whats really the chance.

Corporate bonds typically return better than cd's or t-bills but so long as the company is solvent you are fine. Make sure the bonds come due within a few years for two reasons. First off is the company does fall on hard times you can switch comapnies after the bonds come due (so long as the company doesn't go bankrupt - again we are talking super safe companies like McDonalds or someone) and secondly if interest rates go down overall it won't matter since you are holding the bonds to maturity regardless. Also if interest rates go up you can simply buy a higher rate bond when the ones you have come due.

Best luck.

cash earns interest at over 5.5% now . . .

Muncie Birder is right and wrong.

T-bills are absolutely safe, offer pretty good return and have tremendous liquidity but they're not free of taxes.

It is impossible to consider highesr returning and safest. I think it is much better if consider just highest returning or just safet. But separate.