A friend of mine

[SheilaT]

1. If he wants the closest thing to absolute safety

that there is, he could just buy U. S. Treasury bonds. I have absolutely no idea what kind of interest they are paying.

If he's capable of being a landlord, maybe buying an inexpensive property or two that he can rent out.

I tend to look at money like that and think, okay, a thousand dollars a month and it will last for 200 months, which is almost 17 years. That's assuming absolutely no interest of any kind. However, he might want to research annuities. I have no idea what kind of annuity 200k will buy, and he probably wouldn't want to tie up the entire amount that way. Maybe put half of it into an annuity that will start giving him an income stream ten years from now.

If this unexpected, windfall money as you've indicated, my personal advice (and I'm not a financial adviser) is to tuck it away as safely as possible. Since he has a good job that looks secure, he's immensely fortunate.

I wish him sincere good luck.