This story is part of CNBC Make It’s Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.
By 2020, Ashley Cleveland needed a break.
In July of that year, the now 41-year-old was laid off from a job at a tech firm. Spending much of her adult life balancing 60-hour workweeks, mostly in marketing, with raising two young children had taken a toll on Cleveland’s mental health, a feeling she hadn’t quite put her finger on until she began speaking with a therapist.
“I was extremely burnt out,” she tells CNBC Make It. “And I wasn’t really aware that I was struggling with anxiety and depression.”
The diagnosis from her therapist allowed Cleveland to make a claim on her long-term disability policy, which, in turn, gave her the financial flexibility to take a step back and evaluate her situation.
“I really checked in with myself and wanted to ask the question, ‘If life ended now, would you really be satisfied with the story?'” she says. “While I had lived a great life, had worked in some of my dream jobs, had all of the cool things, the nice trinkets, there was still that desire to live outside of the U.S., and it was becoming more and more desirable with all of the political unrest and the racial tension.”
After talking with a friend living abroad and doing some research, Cleveland, along with her daughters, packed their bags for Tanzania in October 2020 — a move that Cleveland envisioned as a multi-month sabbatical.
Ashley Cleveland, 41, lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Her businesses bring in $122,000 a year.
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It didn’t take long for her to fall in love with living in Africa. “It really restored my spirit. My physical body was better, I was feeling better, I was sleeping better, I was looking better,” Cleveland says.
These days, Cleveland and her daughters, ages 14 and 7, live in Cape Town, South Africa, where Cleveland runs a number of businesses, all aimed at helping people travel to, live in and invest in the continent she now calls home. Altogether, her ventures bring in around $122,000 a year.
Finding her way to South Africa
For much of her 20s and 30s, life was a rollercoaster for Cleveland. After graduating from Florida State University in 2006, she spent years in high-energy jobs, working in promotion and marketing at radio stations and record labels, and even putting in a stint at a hedge fund.
In 2007, she tried her hand at being a landlord and flipping houses — a move she says put her deep into debt during the 2008 housing crisis and resulted in her filing for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy.
In 2011, she moved from Atlanta to Miami to take her then-dream job in marketing for Red Bull. Months later, she received news that her sister had been killed, leaving behind a 5-month-old daughter. Cleveland soon left the job and moved back to Atlanta to support her niece, who she officially adopted in 2014.
Three years later, Cleveland was pregnant with a second daughter when she discovered her company did not offer maternity leave.
“It radicalized me,” she says, especially when she learned of fatality rates among Black mothers in her state. A 2019 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights found that Black women in Georgia were 3.3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than were white women.
Cleveland says relocating has helped her be a more present mother to her daughters Zhaeniya,14, and Penelope, 7.
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During her time in Tanzania, Cleveland visited South Africa, and knew immediately she wanted to make a home there.
However, actually moving was easier said than done. To secure residency in South Africa, Cleveland had to travel home in 2021 to file necessary paperwork and make the necessary arrangements to move with her daughters.
A few years later, Cleveland was able to move back to Africa with her daughters, settling in South Africa in 2023 and moving to Cape Town, the country’s second-largest city, earlier this year.
Building community: I was ‘living in alignment with my values’
One of the things Cleveland learned was that she could build community around her journey — and monetize it. In 2021, while preparing for her move, Cleveland started a YouTube channel, which now has around 86,000 subscribers.
“It was just a way for me to share … the ways that I was allowed to be a better mother, a better woman, and ultimately just a better person that was now living in alignment with my values,” Cleveland says.
The message resonated with viewers, who soon began asking Cleveland how they could replicate her journey. So she started charging for 1-on-1 consultations and selling digital guides for people interested in traveling to or living in Africa.
Cleveland parlayed a community on YouTube into businesses focused on travelers, foreign-born residents and investors in Africa.
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She has since expanded the business to include digital and in-person community events, brand partnerships and consultations for those looking to relocate to Africa or invest in local businesses. In 2022, her first year, Cleveland’s businesses brought in roughly $6,000, she says. This year, she’s on track to top $122,000 — enough to live a comfortable lifestyle in a place where she feels truly fulfilled, she says.
“I feel a sense of freedom. I feel a sense of empowerment. I feel a sense of internal joy that I had to fight for daily living in the U.S.,” she says.
Here’s how Cleveland spent her money in August 2025.
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Alisa Stern | CNBC Make It
Business expenses: $2,754 on employee pay, online business solutions, suppliesHousing and utilities: $1,914 on rent, Wi-Fi and powerDiscretionary: $1,802 on apparel, beauty, entertainment and other miscellaneous expensesFood: $1,209 on dining and groceriesHousehold: $1,063 on a housekeeper and goods for the homeKids: $970 on homeschooling for her daughters and children’s itemsLife insurance: $500Phone: $115Subscriptions and memberships: $84 on a gym membership and a credit monitoring serviceRideshares: $82
Cleveland and her daughters live in a 3-bedroom apartment in the Sea Point neighborhood in Cape Town, which rents for about $1,750 a month.
For Cleveland, whose work is location independent, finding balance between work and family life is key. On a light day, she might work five hours. On a busier day, such as when she hosts community events, it might look more like 10.
“I am very intentional about not hustling. I used to work a lot of hours. It was very common for me to work 60-hour work weeks,” she says. “But I definitely found a way to enjoy what I’m doing and the time that I spend on my work, as well as the time that I spend with myself and my family.”
Cleveland is able to afford a full-time housekeeper, which runs her about $450 a month. It’s well worth it, she says, since it takes many of the daily tasks which would eat up her time off her plate. A tutor helps with her daughters’ homeschooling — a necessity until both can enroll in local schools at the start of term in January.
As a result, Cleveland’s time with her family is richer and more abundant, and she’s able to be a more present mother, she says.
‘I moved to make a better life for all of us’
Cleveland says she’s trying rebuild her investment portfolio, much of which she liquidated during the process of moving to South Africa. While she has around $54,000 sitting in retirement accounts, she’s betting on a different path to build her long-term wealth.
“In this stage of my life, after going through all that I went through, I realized my No. 1 is my ability to earn an income,” she says.
To that end, she’s retained the services of a business scaling coach with the goal of cracking $1 million in revenue in 2026. Cleveland says plans are on track, “and I don’t see things going anywhere but up from there.”
One consistent personal investment she makes is about $500 a month in life insurance premiums to policies which benefit her children if something happens to her.
Cleveland plans to permanently reside in South Africa. She hopes to grow her revenues to more than $1 million next year.
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Cleveland plans to file for permanent residency in South Africa, which she sees as a forever home for her and her daughters. While she acknowledges that moving around in recent years has caused some upheaval, Cleveland says it was well worth it to be able to live and raise her children somewhere they can feel free and empowered to pursue the things they want.
“I hope that they remember from this time that I moved to make a life better for all of us, where we could feel safe, where we could feel seen and where we could feel secure in our future and not have to fight for freedom, but to get to experience that every day.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that Cleveland’s income is paid in U.S. dollars.
All amounts are in U.S. dollars. Any amounts converted from South African rands used the OANDA exchange rate of 17.68 ZAR to 1 USD on Aug. 31, 2025.
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