I just found out about an interesting safe investment.
I-bonds are treasury bonds based on the inflation rate.
right now they are at 7 percent, in may they change to over 9 percent.
if you buy before may you get 7 percent for 6 months, then in 6 months they go to 9 percent for 6 months.
there are a few catches.
that interest rate changes every 6 months. but it doesn't change for you till after your 6 months are up.
you can't withdraw it for a year. And if you do it before 5 years you lose 3 months of interest.

you can only put 10k per person and 5k of your tax return in.
but if you have that kind of change lying around not doing any work for you, and you are very risk adverse, this is the way to go.
otherwise I found, unless I am willing to take some serious risks, I make more just putting it into the s&p 500 index funds.