Probably you have to put this money into an IRA because it comes from your ex-husband’s retirement accounts. What you should do is call Vanguard and set up the account with them. They will walk you through everything. They will answer all your questions. They will set it up and send you the paperwork to sign. They will also help you figure out what to invest it in.
At first, you want all the money in a money market account. Vanguard has a decent one. None are paying much interest these days. Then, as you research investing and figure out where you want to invest, you can do it all online. Invest in mutual funds. If you don’t want to think about anything, invest in the STAR fund or the Asset Allocation fund. Both are well diversified and fairly conservative, but experience good returns, on average.
Use Vanguard because they keep the costs of investing very low. They do not actively manage accounts, which keeps costs low. They use automatic investment strategies, so there is not a lot of jiggering going on with investment managers. You are not buying and selling all the time.
If, at some point, you decide you are more interested in managing your money, then you can start investigating other mutual funds to invest in. I would stay away from purchasing individual stocks until you are very sure you understand what you are doing. If you don’t know what a mutual fund is and you don’t want to know, use the STAR fund or Asset Allocation and forget about it. If you have a lower tolerance for risk, then keep it in Treasury Bonds or even in Money Market accounts, although the latter are not as safe as they once were, and even the former are not the solid bets they used to be.
But I would rely on one of the two funds I mentioned because then you are in stocks and bonds, and you have a little more risk, but the old conservative investments are not nearly as stable as people used to think, so there’s no point in staying out of the stock market. But the safest way to invest is through a mutual fund that is well diversified, as the two funds I mentioned are.