Tiffany Grant reconnects with her audience after a significant hiatus in this heartfelt episode of Tiffany's Take. Tune in as Tiffany opens up about her life transitions, including why she left her PhD program, her bold move from the U.S. to Jamaica, and her inspiring volunteer experience in Guinea. Tiffany delves deep into the complexities of her health journey, the impact of lifestyle changes, and her newfound perspectives on simpler living.

Key Points

• Tiffany’s reasons for leaving her PhD program in social work.
• Her life-altering move to Jamaica and the positive changes it has brought.
• The health issues that motivated her to relocate and the remarkable improvements since her move.
• A glimpse into her volunteer work in Guinea, helping small business owners and entrepreneurs.
• The profound cultural connections between Jamaica and Guinea, and the emphasis on community in both places.
• Encouragement for listeners to visit Africa and explore different lifestyles.
• Exciting content plans moving forward and a call-to-action for listeners to submit questions.

Connect with Tiffany

Website: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com

Facebook: Money Talk With Tiff

Twitter: @moneytalkwitht

Instagram: @moneytalkwitht

LinkedIn: Tiffany Grant

YouTube: Money Talk With Tiff

Pinterest: @moneytalkwitht

TikTok: @moneytalkwitht

Have any questions for Tiffany? Want to know more about her life updates or need some financial advice? Send in your questions through the website! And don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review if you enjoyed the episode.

You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money

nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings

and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff

podcast.

Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Tiffany's take, where I

answer your money questions right here on the podcast. So to get your question

answered, go to www.moneytalkwitht.com

axt tiffany, and I'll be more than happy to answer for you.

So, for this episode, I know it's been a while since you've heard

my voice on tiffany's take. It's actually been since April 30,

to be exact. I looked before I hit record. I was like, what? It's been

that long? But I just wanted to take this episode to just do quick

life updates, just so you all know why I've been away for

so long. I missed you so much. I promise I

did. And I've missed recording. I haven't recorded

all summer, so this is my first time recording. So hopefully

you've been keeping up with some of my previous recorded interviews with some

awesome people. If not, I'll make sure I have some of those links in the

show notes, or you can just go back in some episodes as you're listening

now. So the first thing that happened was that I

quit my PhD program. So, for those of you that didn't

know, I was going for a PhD in social work. And

earlier this year, actually around April, was when I decided

to not continue the program anymore. And there was a few

reasons for that, is that I decided that I didn't want to be a

tenured professor. That was why I was in the program. So

that way I can be a tenured professor. And because that was no longer a

goal, I was like, okay, what are the other benefits of getting this?

The second reason was that I decided that I was moving,

which I'll get more into that with number two. So

it just didn't make sense for me to continue the program because it was an

in person program and a myriad of other reasons, but I

decided to walk away from that program, and it was a very hard decision

because I'm one of those types of people where

once I put my mind to something, I want to finish it out, I want

to do it. And making that decision was very difficult,

but it ended up being the best decision for me in this

season of my life. Now, who's to say? You know, when I

get older, maybe I want to be a ten year professor. Who knows? But right

now, in my life that just didn't align with where I was going. So

I decided to quit. So that was number one. Number two

was I moved out the country, y'all. So

I not only moved like in my city or state or

even the US, I moved outside of the US. And

that was a journey. So I've been on this journey

since what, I'll say, February of this year was when I made the

decision that I wanted to move and starting to put

the pieces into play and everything kind of

just happened, you know? So I'm here right now

in my new environment and I love it. I feel like

even though it's been a tough summer, don't get me wrong, it's been a

tough summer. However, now that I'm settled and

everything, you know, it's getting back to normal. It is

the best decision I have ever made in my life. It was the most

difficult because I have only lived in the US my

entire life. You know, I was in New York until I was like twelve,

and then I've been in North Carolina ever since then. So all of my family,

friends, everything is in the US. And so

doing this really took a leap of faith and

I am so glad that everything

worked out because it could have looked so much

different. So thank God that I'm here, I'm safe.

I moved with my two youngest kids. My oldest

son, he is in high school, so he's staying there to finish up high

school. But so far so good. We all love

it. It's been the best decision. And I made

that decision for a few reasons too. One, and one of the

main concerns was health issues. So the end of last year,

beginning of this year, I was having a myriad of

health issues, mainly stemming around my

heart, blood pressure, things like that swelling. None of the

doctors could figure it out. I went to all types of special to

cardiologists I've been to, you know, the kidney doctors, I can never

say their name. Nephrologist, I think it is. But

anyway, I went to all of those types of doctors. I was

hospitalized a few times the end of last year and

nobody could figure out what was wrong with me. And so when I went to,

you know, out the country the first time, I noticed that

I had stopped taking on my blood pressure medicine and my blood pressure was

fine. I. And so I'm like, what is it that is

not getting along with me here in the states? And after being

away for so long, I went back and visited in July

and I realized what it is. It's the food. It's the

food, it's the environment. There's so many things that are

killing people in the US, and it's not like that in other parts of

the world. And so that was one of the main

reasons. Another reason was just to give my kids a new experience.

They have been loving it so far, doing things that they've never done. Even

me doing things that I've never done before, y'all, I hand wash

clothes and put them on the line. Like, that is the

simple living that I have been craving for so long.

We also are outside more, and I noticed that

here, where I'm living now, everybody's outside,

everybody's active, everybody's doing something, even the older

people. Like, there's an older guy in my neighborhood, he's like,

in his sixties, and he's doing backflips and front flips,

you know? And so I was like, this is somewhere

where I would love to be, and I would love to raise my kids as

well. So again, there's other reasons

I decided to make that move. But all in all, it

has been a great experience. There's a lot that I have learned, and of course,

being in a different culture, I learned every single day new

things. But I do feel like home.

And I am working on my citizenship as

well. So that's an update. The third

thing is, I went to Africa over the summer, so I

spent two weeks in guinea, and I was over there helping

small business owners, entrepreneurs, create a business

plan, create goals, things that I talk about all the time on the podcast

and the blog. I had the privilege and the opportunity

to do that over there as well. And it was part of a

volunteer assignment, but it was all expenses paid. I

just had to go create the material, teach it, and that

was a wonderful experience. I highly recommend. I went through

Windrock International. It's a legit thing. I did

it. So I'll make sure I have the link, and I'll

also make sure that I'll include my recruiter as well, so that way you

can reach out to her directly. But it was a very

fulfilling experience, and I loved it so much.

I learned so much about not only Africa, but the ghanaian

culture. I've also learned how

similar the culture is over there and where I'm at

now. So let me just tell you where I'm at. I'm in

Jamaica. So I moved to Jamaica. And if you know me, you know I'm

half jamaican, my dad is jamaican. So that's where the citizenship and everything is

coming from. But I realized how closely

tied guinea and Jamaica

is when it comes to food, when it comes to culture, when it comes to

just relationships and things like that, in both

places, it's really community based. And I've started to

learn that about pretty much the rest of the world outside

of cultures. It's very

community based, it's very community centered. And so everybody

helps everybody. Everybody looks out for everybody, and it's just

an awesome feeling. So even though in guinea, you know, it's a

french speaking country, I don't speak French. They still

keep in touch with me. They may send me a bonjour or a bon

soie, like, how are you? You

know, and, you know, I have to go to Google translate to make sure that

I can communicate back and forth. But even with a language

barrier, the quality of relationships and the

people checking on you and things like that, it's just an awesome

feeling. So I highly recommend that

everybody, especially black Americans, take a trip to

Africa, y'all, at some point in your life, because

it was a very eye opening experience. And then you also

realize that you can live with way less than what you

have. So when I moved, I literally moved in

suitcases for the most part. I shipped one barrel,

but outside of that, which was mostly food, which we

can get into that another time. But I moved in

suitcases, so that's all I have. And I don't

miss any of that stuff that I had in the US

at all. Like, I have no desire to

accumulate that much stuff again. But you just realize

how much you have there and how that can also cause

a lot of stress, too. So realizing that other people

in other countries aren't living in this way. So all

of that to say, it has truly been an eye opening

summer for me. And even though I missed you all so

much, I can tell you that this has really

expanded my purview, and I have even more content

ideas to share with you, especially about being an expat and

moving out of the country. So if that's something you're interested in, let me

know. So send me a message on moneytalkwitht.com and

I can start creating content around that as as well. Please

send in your questions, too. So any questions you have for me, whether

it be about things I talked about in this episode or any money,

business, or career questions, be sure to send those in. I'll be

going through. Starting next week, I'll be going through all of the questions that

were submitted in my absence. I'm so glad to be back, and I'm

so glad that you're still listening. I have a ton of gems

to share with you as we move forward, so make sure that

you're subscribed, make sure you like share

all of those good things so that way you don't miss any of these episodes.

And of course, as always, on Thursdays we have the interviews.

Those will still be pumping out as well. So I got a lot of content

for y'all, so make sure you check it out. And then also make sure you

check out the blog too. Because even while I was away, I was still

posting blog content as well. And there's some good information

there and I might turn some of those blogs into podcast episodes. So we'll

see. Anyway, I just thought it would be good to share with you what I

had going on and why I was away for so long. But now

that I'm back, I'm ready to rock and roll. I'm ready to give you some

more good gems. So anyway, I hope you all

have a wonderful rest of the day and I will see you next week for

Tiffany's take on Tuesday. Bye. Thank you

for listening, joining and being a part of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast this

week. You can check TiFF out every Thursday for a new Money talk

podcast, but if you just cant wait until next week, you can listen to

previous podcast

episodes@moneytalkwitht.com or

follow TIFF on all social media platforms at

moneytalkwitht. Until next time, spend wise

by spending less than you make a word to the money wise is

always sufficient.