铁饭碗 (Tiě Fàn Wǎn)

(Financially) stable source of life. Literally, it's iron meal bowl. 


铁 = Iron

饭 = Meal

碗 = Bowl


Iron is pretty hard to break when compared to straw, wood, glass, or ceramic. So you can get why this description. 

As for the meal bowl, I don't need to example why it's a source of life, right?