Grinding never has been an issue in this game -- just by picking up random "treasures" while you're walking through the map anyways you should have enough money for all the stuff you'll need to finish the current episode/update. Also, later on, you got additional money by doing "side quests" for strangers which also always was enough to finish an update. After finishing each update I do have more money than before.
Sure, if you want to buy all the expansions right at the start, you'd need to grind a lot. But there's absolute no need to have all those upgrades at the very beginning. Only buy the stuff you need to progress, and you don't need to grind.
The only "grind" I remember was the fishing game in ToN... ;-)