I've been here for a couple of months, posting at least once or twice daily. In my experience, no you cannot make a living off Steem without a significant upfront investment. It takes a substantial amount of steem power to earn more than a few pennies or dollars for your posts and comment curation.

I post because I believe in the future potential of the platform, and if Steem tokens take off, the value of my account will similarly skyrocket. So for now, I just write daily blog entries that earn a little bit of money, with the hopes the value of the currency will continue to grow and if Steem eventually rises from $1.20 to $24.00, a post I write today that earns just $2.25 would be worth $45.00.

Think of it like a retirement plan, not a job.