Entrepreneur Ashley Cleveland detailed her significant life transition from Corporate America to Cape Town, South Africa, in an exclusive feature for CNBC Make It, outlining the immense personal and professional liberation she found abroad and the cost structure of her life as a full-time business owner. Ashley Cleveland, 41, now earns about $122,000 annually in her business and relocated her family to Tanzania five years ago before settling in South Africa in 2023. Her move was catalyzed by a desire to escape political unrest and racial tension in the U.S., which became increasingly desirable after a company failed to offer maternity leave following her daughter’s birth in 2017. She had already experienced three layoffs in five years from tech roles and was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Leveraging a long-term disability policy she had invested in provided her with an income stream, enabling the move.
For Ashley Cleveland, living in South Africa has been "really empowering" as a Black woman raising two young Black girls. She noted that topics she felt pressured to discuss in America—like limitations due to skin color—are things "we don't even discuss" in Cape Town. This environment offers a "sense of freedom" and "internal joy" that she previously had to "fight for daily living in the US," characterizing this liberation as "priceless". Her mental health is now "far better than I could have ever imagined it would be," describing a joy, excitement, and love for life she experiences daily, often reminded of "what life is supposed to feel like" when seeing the ocean and mountains.
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Ashley Cleveland founded the Africa Investors Academy, a community dedicated to helping others successfully travel, relocate, and do business in Africa. Her business goals are expansive; she is working with a scaling coach to reach "$1 million next year". Ashley Cleveland’s personal financial history included significant challenges, having been introduced to real estate flipping after graduating from Florida State University in 2006, which left her "upside down over maybe 3 to $400,000 in debt". She filed for bankruptcy in 2009, which was discharged around 2011.
Her flat in Cape Town is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment costing 31,000 rand per month. The lounge serves as a multi-purpose space—living room, dining room, office, and homeschool space—where she and her girls work and study. She shared that food prices are increasing in South Africa, and she spends about 2,000 rand per week on groceries for a family of four, which includes meals for her house manager. For transportation, she spends an average of 6,000 rand per month, using Uber "99% of the time". Regarding safety, a frequent concern for those considering Cape Town, Ashley Cleveland stated that in her area, Setpoint, she feels "very safe" and walks regularly "sun up, sun down," though she remains aware of her surroundings.
Motherhood has "changed for me drastically since moving to the continent of Africa". Her time with her children was "extremely limited" when she lived in the U.S. Ashley Cleveland emphasized that being able to afford "full-time help as a mother is a game changer," observing that many of her U.S. friends are "burnt out because they have to do it all". Her goal now is simply to be a "healthy loving available mother to my girls," which she has been able to achieve living in Cape Town. Ashley Cleveland plans on filing for permanent residency and hopes to make South Africa a permanent home for her family. She believes that if everyone could experience the "joy the peace and the level of gratitude that I get to experience daily," the world would "definitely be a better place".
