What to do with proceeds from selling our house

[FowlerJB]

So we just sold our house! awesome but now what to do with the money.  We are going to set aside some cash like 300,000 to buy another house.  I guess we will keep it in some type of money market? Rates real suck though.  I need to set aside 150,000 for the schooling of a child that requires extra attention. 50k a year for the next 3 years.  Maybe invest in some type of bond ladder?  and about 100k to invest in either the market or real estate.  I have a 401k and some other small investments.  I have never invested in real estate and wouldn't mind the diversification.  Any Ideas would be helpful as I am getting stuck.  Doesn't seem like any good options for returns right now.

Thanks   

[researcher1]

So we just sold our house! awesome but now what to do with the money.  We are going to set aside some cash like 300,000 to buy another house. 
I need to set aside 150,000 for the schooling of a child that requires extra attention.
and about 100k to invest in either the market or real estate.  I have a 401k and some other small investments.  I have never invested in real estate and wouldn't mind the diversification.

It will be hard to answer this without more information.

What other financial assets do you hold?  Just the 401K and "other small investments"? 
What are the values of these accounts?

When do you plan to purchase another house?  Where are you living currently?
What part of the country do you live in?

Do you have the desire, time and skills needed to be a landlord?

Just to clarify, you walked away from closing with a check for $550,000, after all expenses/fees/ect?

[yachi]

Wow, what does $50,000 per year in "extra attention schooling" get you?  That's like the salary for a full time teacher in my area.

Given the above expenditure, is the 300K a downpayment on a $1.5 M house?  Because I was going to suggest getting a mortgage on your new house since rates are low...

The other thing to consider here is how long it would take you to recover from losses.  If you're earning 600K a year and saving 80% of it you'll get different responses than if you're earning 60k a year and saving 20%.