Twenty million RMB, in 2009, is definitely a significant amount; investing in a house would probably allow one to live comfortably for a lifetime.
But in the world of Formula racing, especially at the F1 level, this amount is just a splash in the pan.
Examples like Chen Xiangbei, a self-funded F1 test driver, are extremely rare, and there's no concrete data to assess how long twenty million would last. However, we can derive a rough timeframe based on another Chinese driver, Zhou Guanyu.
During Zhou Guanyu's F3 period, he was a member of the Ferrari youth training camp. Due to all team resources focusing on Mick Schumacher, he couldn't rise to F2 based on his performance and had to leave for the Renault youth training team.
Even with the title of Renault youth training driver, Zhou Guanyu was essentially self-funded.
His family acquired an F2 team and rebranded it as UNI-Virtuosi, with UNI representing "Universe."
