If you had met me a few years ago, you would’ve found a wannabe Warren Buffett, hunched over a laptop at midnight, obsessively tracking the latest hyper-growth darlings: tech, cloud, the usual suspects. My portfolio looked like a “next Amazon” bingo card. But today? My phone buzzes not with price alerts, but with notifications from my broker: dividends credited, month after month.

The moment that changed everything

It wasn’t a market crash, a guru’s podcast, or some profound book that changed my mind. It was, honestly, a boring Tuesday evening. I was reviewing my finances after buying a home, staring at a mortgage statement with a barely real number. My growth stocks were up (on paper), but my cash flow was stubbornly negative. Suddenly, I realised: paper gains wouldn’t pay my bills. That was my “ah-ha” moment. Not dramatic, but quietly pivotal. For almost a decade, I chased growth. I...