No settlement. He claims he got a $62k payout, but it's just his salary from his year off. Under his contract he was liable to payback that salary if he didn't produce the work for which he was going on sabbatical within six months, in his case a book. The fact that a year long work never got published is proof that he never worked on it.
Yes, he's largely living off the rent from his trailers. What does he have, 4? So if each one is making ~$250/mo profit, that's a comfortable income. Now he also does an appearance every few months, let's say 5 a year. I don't know what they pay but I can imagine it's like $2k a pop, and the high profile ones like The Hill's are probably more. He has to pay taxes and a property manager, but if he cheats on his taxes Rhys could easily be bringing home $50k/yr for doing absolutely nothing.
Don't get me wrong, Rhys will fuck it up. A year ago he had all that plus a tenured $62k job teaching two sections a semester. A life all set up to run itself, and still Rhys manages to ruin things. Such is the way of the narc.