If you have the money it’s best to skip Blender and go straight to Max or Maya. And again, 3ds Max has the better modeling tools, based on experience, especially over Blender. I haven’t done enough animation to appreciate what Maya has to offer there.
As for the licenses for those programs, they are perpetual licenses. At the end of this year they will be getting rid of upgrade pricing so your only options then is to go on subscription or to pay full price for a new version. And at that point you would have to go on subscription if you intend to go to a new version within 6 years (subscription is $625, license is $3,675 so 6*$625=$3,750)
Another option is Modo, which is $1,500 and a very good modeler, not so good on the animation side though.