Q. I am a very healthy 62-year-old woman, earning $30,000 a year. I have no debt save a car loan. My company does not have a retirement plan, and I have no plans to retire. I have invested $2,000 a year in mutual fund IRA accounts, with these current investments: $19,457 in Fidelity Cash Reserves, $26,417 in Vanguard Prime Money Market, and $9,032 in Vanguard International Growth. A year ago I moved funds from a diverse portfolio of Vanguard, Fidelity, and Invesco funds into the two money market accounts on the word of an investment adviser who was concerned about the market being too high. I no longer subscribe to his newsletter. Putting that behind me, what funds do you suggest I ease myself into? I also have about $15,000 in gold coins, silver, and an investment diamond, and as these have not proved good investments, I'd like to cash them out and use the money to invest in stocks and mutual funds.

M.S, San Diego, Calif.

A. About a year ago I, too, was spooked by the stock market, although I didn't pull the trigger on most of my stock holdings until November. So my advice may be a taste from the same well that displeased you before. My feeling is it's better to sell too early than too late, and I guess I can take comfort in having done that.

But I do believe that the money markets are too conservative for the IRA portfolio of a person of your age and youthful outlook. Since it appears you won't be drawing upon the IRA funds until you reach the age for mandatory withdrawals, I suggest you take a little more risk by going into the bond markets. Transfer the two IRA money market accounts into Ginnie Mae and junk bond funds. Staying within the same fund families, you might transfer from Fidelity Cash Reserves into Fidelity's Spartan GNMA, and from the Vanguard Prime into Vanguard High Yield. This should bump your expected returns from the 5 percent range to roughly 7 percent from the GNMA account and 8.5 percent for the junk bonds.

Those returns are, of course, nothing like the double-digit stock market results you (and I) have been envying from the sidelines. Still, there's very limited up-side to the short-term stock market, and a considerable downside danger. With the concentration in bonds, your fears would be limited mostly to interest rate increases. And while there may be some prospect of an eventual near-term rate increase or two, we are essentially approaching the end of a long economic expansion, and once the expansion ends, the likelihood will be for interest rates to decline rather than advance. (No, I don't believe, as some people now seem to do, that the business cycle has been repealed.)

As for the taxable money that you're planning to take out of precious metals and diamonds, so long as you're committed to a long-term investment, you might be a little more venturesome. First of all, you don't want this account to produce significant tax liabilities. So you might look at funds that divide their holdings among conservative stock positions and bonds and other fixed-income investments. Within the same two fund families, I suggest you consider Fidelity Puritan and Vanguard Balanced Index.