Please go back to the topic of the thread. Discussions about community college courses on finances are a topic for another thread
I believe this distinction of the varying types of community and community college offerings about finance is very on target and helpful.
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@snowball I am so very sorry that you lost your husband. Now on top of everything else to deal with, you have the task of learning about your money. I suggest, to take the time pressure off of you, if you are feeling like the insurance proceeds are sitting in your bank account earning next to nothing, to do this simple thing (if you haven’t already).
Open up a brokerage account to put the insurance money in. It would be convenient if it was the same agency where you have your retirement funds at (that is if your IRA is at Charles Schwab, Fidelity or Vanguard). I can’t speak to any of the other investment entities, but these three are the big ones, low fees, uncomplicated, though Vanguard’s website is terrible to negotiate, I would not open up a new account there unless my IRA was already at Vanguard. It will take a couple of minutes to do this online.
Put the money into a safe, high earning money market account. Fidelity has SPAXX (4.96%), Vanguard has VMFXX (5.27%), Schwab has SMVXX (5.19%), all these are 7 day yields so they go up and down, but they are paying a great rate with little risk. Or find something else that earns a similar rate safely. That way you don’t feel pushed to do something immediately, because the reality is, as long as these funds are paying that much, you might not want to do anything else with them. Good luck to you!
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I’ll add to Busdriver’s EXCELLENT suggestion- the Vanguard site may be complicated, but their customer service people are fantastic. They can walk you through anything- with simple language, easy to understand descriptions, and some pretty nice empathy to boot.
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I have found that my mother’s Vanguard advisor is absolutely fantastic, kind, compassionate, makes things simple. But when I call them (I don’t have an advisor, since they don’t manage my money and I lost their Flagship services after I moved most of my funds), I am on hold forever, and often just give up before talking to anyone.
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Adding on to Busdriver’s excellent advice, my vote would be for Fidelity.
Schwab’s research is excellent, but I have found the Fidelity reps to be infinitely patient with my questions as I have been learning.
Vanguard’s site is a disaster. My children had their Roths there for a few years and ended up transferring to Fidelity as none of us could not navigate even simple transactions such as funding Roth from an already-linked bank account.
Fidelity also offers FZDXX with a seven day yield of 5.14%. It requires a $100K minimum in some types of accounts, but not in others and I cannot recall which. Taxable does require $100K but Roth does not, and maybe IRA also.
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Personally, I like having some funds in local bank, some in local Schwab and some in Fidelity. I can generally talk to someone at each of those places within a reasonable amount over time.
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I appreciate everyone’s replies, although only a few were what I was looking for, so maybe I wasn’t clear in my post. I am not looking to how or where to invest my money; that has been taken care of from day one of receiving the life insurance. My IRAs and 401K are now under the care of my new Financial Planner at Schwab as I already had money there; so far I am happy with her suggestions and watching the money grow! I also have my high yield savings.
What I think I am looking for is to educate myself so I can be a more active participant in my investments. I am not totally clueless, but wanting to make sure I understand when the FP makes a suggestion, that I am doing what I think is best for me, instead of always relying on her thoughts. Again, she came highly recommended by my BIL who is in the insurance business and is looking out for my well being. I will look at some of the links suggested, and Podcast recommendation.
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OP- you will find a little bit of knowledge goes a long way. Just understanding the difference between actual retirement investments vs. “money in my head that I’ll need for retirement” is hugely important-- and not that complicated once you have someone explain it to you step by step.
Good luck and hugs.
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OP, I’m not sure if this kind of thing is helpful either, but I used to read Kiplinger magazine fairly regularly.
I just did a search on their site of something like “stocks vs bonds vs savings account” and this is what I got
https://www.kiplinger.com/search?searchTerm=Stocks+vs+bonds+vs+savings+account
Sometimes reading articles with examples or comparisons is easier than just looking up a specific thing.
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I think just learning some of the lingo will help a lot. Helps you know what you don’t know. You’re smart; you can do the research once you know what you need to research. 
My cc friends taught me about RMDs and brokerage accounts and all kinds of things I didn’t know. And I would read what they said, and my eyes would glaze over. I felt hopelessly behind the curve. But then I at least knew to research RMDs only to discover, hey, those DO apply to me.
You’ll get this! (((hugs)))
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I definitely agree with learning more to understand what they’re doing, however, I would be attuned to financial advisors doing things that are rather complicated. We’ve been to a number of them, and some have suggested things we didn’t know much about, that were more to their advantage (ie upfront fees) than to ours. The problem isn’t always that you don’t understand, but they are going off the beaten path when they really could do simple and effective investing, no complicated high fee investing required.
I’ll bet there’s an “Investing for Dummies” book, I might even have one on my shelf. I like how the Dummies books really break things down.
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I’m with you. I’ve benefitted a lot from dedicating a couple days every year to poking around on the internet learning about finances and investments. Over time, the knowledge really adds up! I’ve actually learned most general stuff from sites like investopedia and nerd wallet. We don’t have much money, but I’m comforted by knowing what’s going on with it.
My spouse mostly just chucks money (not enough) into a 401k target-date fund, and that’s what I used to do as well. That’s a great maintenance-free option (and good to know about)! I haven’t even tried to get my spouse to change strategies, but I may open that conversation as we get older.
However, I decided that I wanted more involvement than just putting my own investments in a target-date fund with its associated fees. So I’ve dipped my toe into bogleheads etc just enough to figure out my low-fee 3-fund portfolio strategy.
I also opened Roth accounts for my children and I’ve received great satisfaction from messing around with that money on their behalf 
. They’ll just be stoked that a parent has gotten amazing returns on their money that would have otherwise been spent or sat in a savings account.
I don’t have a dedicated financial planner though I’ve spoken with some in the past. But I’m likely to consult one regularly when I get older. I like to know enough to stay informed, but once it gets too complicated, I’ll involve a planner.
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I second a “Investing for Dummies” book since you already have financial advisors in place and you only need to understand the jargons and how they work. I have been taking care of all my family’s investments and finances for over 40 years and I started out by watching “Wall Street Week” by Louis Rukeyser religiously on PBS.
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I go by if it’s too complicated and I don’t understand it, it’s not for me. Investments really don’t need to be complicated.
A few broad index funds, a good interest bearing account for liquidity, a few credit cards, withdrawing your RMDs from IRA at correct time/age and you’re pretty set.
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It seems often to me that if something is rather complicated, it’s not going to be to my benefit. We met with an advisor that is well known around here, I’ve listened to him on the radio for years. CPA, fiduciary, all that, seems quite reasonable. He presented us with a plan that included moving 800K from our 401Ks into an annuity that he recommended. It wouldn’t pay out anything for ten years (could that possibly be so long?) and then it would pay out 40K until we died. Sounded terrible. His plan wouldn’t give us much income for some time, but eventually (supposedly) pay out over 800K/yr in our mid eighties.
Sure, if you sit on money for 25+ years, there’s going to be a big payout, but who would want to plan to wait to get such money at that age? And then pay the taxes on it. It made no sense, though I’m sure it paid him great commissions. When things are too complicated, fees not transparent, I’m suspicious.
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Single Premium Immediate Annuities (SPIA) have a place for people who want to remove market risk and guarantee an income stream. You give them a lump sum and they give you back an immediate monthly return. You can think of it sort of like buying your own pension. With the uptick in interest rates, they pay reasonably well. They’re better thought of as insurance against longevity than an investment. You can guarantee a term, return of premium and/or roll it to a spouse, each option lowering the monthly return. I don’t see any other annuity as being very useful.
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Sadly @busdriver11’s agent was trying to sell something that didn’t appeal. Not all annuities are created equally—clearly.
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I think all but SPIAs are just a money grab.
As for the rest of it, I’m in the same camp as you, keep it simple.
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There are plenty of things that sound complicated but in actuality are not.
Balancing your portfolio if you have stocks and you reinvest the dividends… people’s eyes glaze over until they understand. Staggering the maturity of your CD’s (to pay tuition perhaps?), taking losses to balance out your gains to reduce your taxes…
These might require two or three different explanations until someone understands the why and the how- but they aren’t complicated even for the “set it and forget it” folks.
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