meal ticket

A person or thing used to provide permanent financial income. This new business was supposed to be my meal ticket, but it's costing me more money than I'm making. As a model, my face is my meal ticket, so I can't afford to have any blemishes!

a meal ticket

If you describe something or someone as a meal ticket, you mean that they are a way of getting all the money that you need throughout your life. A degree has never been a meal ticket, but the recession is making life for graduates tougher than ever. He was wealthy. I think she saw him as a life-long meal ticket.

a ˈmeal ticket

(informal) a person or thing that you see only as a source of money and food: He suspected that he was just a meal ticket for her. ♢ I hoped the guitar would become my meal ticket.