I believe that at least one of them worked for Meta before they embarked on this journey and I believe that they basically used the big tech money to FIRE. They've been able to them supplement and transition their income with the games and apps they've produced as well as related income from their 100rabbits work, as well as having minimized living expenses and no children. None of this is meant to be judgement or in any way demean the work they currently do, I love all of their stuff. Just trying to answer your question.
This comment is completely untrue, the place I had read the information was incorrect and I was wrong in passing on second hand information I hadn’t personally verified. One of the people in question has clarified and corrected this comment. I can’t edit the comment at this point otherwise I would, so this is the best I can do.
One of the two authors of the site up here, I just want to clarify before this becomes a rumour, I never worked at Meta, nor in big tech, neither have my partner.
Prior to moving on the water, Rek worked in a 10 person animation studio in Japan(Toneplus), as an animator/illustrator, and me(Dev) worked as a designer at a 15 employees company Cerego(we were building smart.fm). Afterward we worked independently making little games, got nominated for the IGF that one time, but never worked directly for a company again.
We budgeted the sailboat like this: 2 years worth of rent and related expense at our current rate, and so we could afford a 40k CAD$ sailboat. The way we looked at it was that if we managed to live aboard for over 2 years, we'd start making up the money we borrowed. It has been nearly 10 years now that we live aboard.
We're super opened with our finances and how we made this possible, so just ask us instead of making stuff up :) Cheers!
Thanks for dispelling the myth above. Very cool (and inspirational! as aspirant to the 100r lifestyle down the line) that you managed to do it without a big tech windfall :)
Unsure about the day-to-day situation, I imagine by now they make enough off of the stuff they put out as 100r that combined with very low expenses it's sustainable or close to. In past blog posts they mention taking on contract work for boat repairs.
They seem to be doing a lot of their maintenance themselves so that probably helps too. Still, I am curious about how much in average does the sailing life cost. They give some numbers here and there, so maybe someone more dedicated might be able to come up with a basic estimate.
I'll defer to Occam's Razor: they probably had enough money at the outset that they don't have to worry about consistent month-to-month income.
That's not meant to be a diss. Though, given their politics, I could understand if they took it that way.