Age: 66
Marriage status: Single
Children/family: No children, have several extended family members
Occupation: Disabled/retired, semi-active author
Median annual income for post code: AGI of ~$36,000
Debt: No debt
Adding current needs and estimated requirements for status-quo life:
How far behind in daily living needs? $5,000
How far behind in daily medical needs? $3,000
How far behind in quality-of-life needs? $25,000
Estimated long-term daily living expenses? $1,000/month
Estimated long-term medical expenditures? $1,200/month
Estimated long-term quality-of-life expenditures? $800/month
All of which means I need about $30k-$40k to catch up, which includes vehicle repairs, additional medical gear, and a few things to make my life easier and a bit more endurable.
Given being able to catch up, I would need ~$3,000 per month income to have a life similar to what I have now. Which is not that great, other than my family, friends, and prepper people in my life.
I have preps, of course, some very good ones, but sadly lacking in several areas. My consumables levels are not that great. And my medical needs would be very difficult to meet in any significant long-term event.
With those factors in mind, for me to not worry about ever working again at anything that I did not want to; be able to have some quality-of-life aspects in my life that I no longer have (or have never had); have my daily needs met with an increase in both level and quality; have a reasonable chance of maintaining my health at a level that I can deal with on a daily basis; have my prepping level at a comfortable point; have the means to incorporate my long-range, multi-generational prepping plan in my overall life plan; and have enough income of a form and amount that will allow me to pay all government mandated expenses for the extent of my lifetime and the next six generations; I would need $25 million to $50 million initial lump sum to get things set up to be in a position to do everything on the list.
Reasoning:
The only way I would be comfortable and not be worrying about needing to generate significant income by doing some type of gainful employment to replace Social Security income and the intermittent and highly variable royalty income when it is lost due to future events would be to have a 85%+ self-sufficient and self-reliant working farm and ranch working estate of a size and nature to not only produce almost all of the needs for myself but for those that would be required to work for me in the running of the facility.
A minimum of 640 acres of quality fertile land in a reasonable weather four-season location would be required with much more than that if possible for the very-long-term requirements I have for multi-generational preps.
Housing and other facilities for not only myself, my extended family, but all employees and their families, as well. Even with providing the majority of the essentials to the employees from the production of the facility, they would still need an income of a from and amount for their use within the surrounding community now, and in the future after any major event.
With at least fifteen people required, and twenty or more preferred, at an estimated average salary of $40,000 per year, that would mean an income of $600,000 to $800,000 per year, plus at least $100,000 per year for myself and more likely $250,000 to cover myself and my extended family that would be on-site.
That would be ~$1,000,000 per year for salaries. At least $250,000 per year would be needed to be sure of being able to cover outside, mandatory expenses that various governments would impose on the operation.
Add another $250,000 per year for procurement of items that could not be produced in-house.
Or, in total, a place that could produce $1,500,000 in current forms of income.
If I could, I would set things up so I could do all the procurement of outside resources myself, which would probably be a huge initial investment, and another $250,000 or more yearly outlay. It would, however, ensure the supplies of items that could not be produced in-house, no matter what might happen in the future.
I do believe the initial amount of $25,000,000 to $50,000,000, plus another $25,000,000 for the outside procurement plan, would be adequate.
Could I get by on less than that? Sure. I would still have worries, though. Many of them.
Just my opinion.