I'm a retiree (66 years old), what should I do with the $22k in my Roth IRA?

I have monthly income from SS/pension/etc sufficient for all my bills and have $500 spending money left over each month. What should I do with the $22k in my Roth IRA? Play it safe and put it all into Bonds/CDs? Or a little riskier and a certain percentage in SP500 Index Fund? Or even more, put a big percentage into a single good safe stock like Apple? Detailed suggestings welcome, thanks!

Putting a good part of it into a broad-based index fund is probably your best bet. You're still relatively young and may live more than another 20 years, so you're probably going to want to get more return than bonds/CDs are going to get you.
I would definitely advise against putting everything into one stock - no matter how good the company is now, things can change and you'd be taking on way too much risk by having absolutely no diversification.

Fortunately, it looks like this doesn't represent the largest part of your reliance for retirement funds, so you don't have to over-worry the matter too much. Just be sure that the index fund/funds into which you put the money has a low management fee - a higher management fee isn't going to increase your return any. Good luck.

contact your agent that will go over with you all of your options. What is good for me might not be good for you.

At 66, I would guess that you really can't afford the risk. I'd roll it over into bonds and CDs. Definitely no stocks. You might want to log on to the Vanguard website. They are really excellent. Or go to the library and look at Kiplingers Report.

I don't know anything about finance, but do you have long term care insurance? Or are you planning on putting that into a fund to be used for long term care should you need it? Long term care is extremely expensive, so you'll want to be sure you have all the money you'll need. :)

Hard to say.

I mean, you'd have to find an investment that's doing well enough to offset the fact that you'd need to start paying taxes on the interest (since you aren't paying taxes on it now because it's a Roth IRA.)

I think you'd be hard pressed to any kind of investments earning enough to offset the potential tax implications. But then, I'm no professional investor, either. Still, I wouldn't take those implications lightly -- be sure you do the math.

How about this:
$5000 in a bond fund
$5000 in an index fund Vanguard funds are a good start
$5000 in a mid cap fund
and $5000 in individual stocks. 3-4 stocks max.
Don't do the 1 stock game but look for stocks like Polaris that have a good dividend. I will help you with one
ready??????????????????
Check out National Beverage Ticker "FIZ"
Great company, steady growth dividend coming:)
I can't stress enough to research companies. Don't buy a stock because you feel it's a good company,
Have fun and don't get greedy. Keep your emotions out of it.

At 60 I am considering using mine as a down payment on a rental property(s) after I start drawing SS and have more than sufficient income. With 20% down it should be cash flow positive and reduce taxes on other income (pension money) because of depreciation.

Any increase in property values is multiplied by leverage (5X1). For example take a $50,000 apartment/condo - a 1% increase is only $500, but it is 5% on your down payment (2% works out to 10%, etc).

It has it all - tax sheltered increases, decrease current tax bill, current cash flow, leveraged gains.