Right now you can get 6% in the UK on a no-frills deposit account at Tesco (hmm, thought they were a supermarket) but that'll be taxed so it's more like 4% real. Which is barely keeping pace with (real, not official) inflation.
True, but banks lend to each other at LIBOR which has remained stubbornly high. Only a few weeks ago some were offering 8% 1-year deposit accounts to get any cash they could get their hands on.
Until this latest hiccup, my simple IRA was making 10-11% a year without me even thinking about it. Also with 5 mil, or 22 mil the types of investments available to you are not 'regular' or something you average hacker has access to.