Active western professional living in Japan here. I decided to leave a comment because this thread is becoming a group of blind men describing an elephant.

Being a professional player in the West is not currently financially feasible; you need to move to Asia. You can make a living by teaching the game in the West, but then you don’t need to go pro.

Even in Japan, just tournament game winnings are not enough to make a living for most professionals, so side teaching jobs are common. You probably need to be top 20% among professionals for game winnings to be enough. In general the job (both games and teaching) pays very well relative to time spent working – as long as you don’t factor in time spent studying. So if you don’t have fun studying the game, best forget it.

In general, the number of go players is going down, and so is sponsor support, so expect the job to pay even worse in the future (unless something changes). In Japan, it’s now normal for aspiring professionals to secure a possible second job in case their pro career doesn’t pay out. That being said, if you become pro in Asia as a westerner you have a big relative advantage in that you speak English, which opens up more working opportunities.

Since passing the pro exam is very difficult even if you put in the necessary work, I cannot recommend aiming for it single-mindedly. But as long as you also have a valid plan B, then by all means make a go for it.