The question we get more than any other, by a wide margin: how do you afford this? So here's the honest version, numbers and all. No secret inheritance, no sponsorship, no viral account. Just math and a lot of saying no at home for two years.

We aim for roughly $2,800/month for the three of us. That's less than our old life cost, which still feels like a magic trick. A recent average month:

• Housing — $1,050. Monthly apartment rentals, always negotiated, always with a kitchen. The single biggest lever. Weekly-and-up discounts routinely cut a listing 40%.
• Food — $620. We cook most nights. Markets, not restaurants, with a generous "eat the local specialty whenever" exception.
• Transport — $540. Trains and buses over flights, partly cost, partly carbon, partly that the journey is the thing.
• Activities & misc — $310. Museums, the occasional boat, Ines's endless supply of small toys that vanish within a week.
• Insurance & boring stuff — $280. Travel health insurance, SIM cards, the storage unit back home.

How we actually fund it: we saved hard, Amara still does about ten hours a week of remote contract work, and we rent out our old flat, which roughly covers housing. It is not infinite. We have a hard date where the spreadsheet says stop. But for now, slow is also cheap, and cheap is what makes slow possible.

Happy to answer specifics — just reply.

— The Okafors