A million dollars is a nice chunk of money and is definitely a usable amount of cash to gain an income from. Developing a strategy to achieve an income from $1 million dollars, you can’t do anything safer and more reliable with it than simply put it into a fixed term deposit at a bank.
Some would argue that placing it in government CD’s may be just as safe with a little higher returns but ultimately what you want is flexibility too, so putting it in the bank would ideally be the best way to earn an income.
At 7% per year, you could make $1400 dollars a week for the rest of your life, providing you do not spend the capital and just work with the interest to apply to life style. So, realistically, you are not rich with just a million dollars in cash. Sure a million dollars can buy you a lot of lifestyle, but once it is spent, you lose the permanent income which means going back to a full time job is a prospect.
A million dollars will give you a middle class lifestyle based on the returns, you may not have an affluent lifestyle at $1400 dollars a week, but then you don’t have to lift a finger to get that money. Another possibility would be to invest it in real estate, because the returns are historically double a benk term deposit. It depends on your capacities, because there is “purchase risk” you may pay too much, but historically, real estate appreciates at a rate of 7% and the rent roll is typically 7% so not only would you have the $1400 dollars a week to live on in cash, but also you will have a nice big capital gain after 20 years.