First, my investing knowledge is very limited (still new to this, still learning). Second, my question is somewhat unfocused, sorry about that but I hope that there is a somewhat concrete answer, maybe after some clarification (I don't know if my example makes sense).
In terms of investment: let's say I know what I'm doing and have a portfolio with 2/5 in Shares, 2/5 in (stock) ETFs (half payout half plowback, hopefully the right terms), 1/5 in Bonds/Metals/alternate stuff etc. How do I go about getting revenue from it? It's not about how to get there but what to do when I'm there.
Let's say we are talking about ~700k and I'd want to get passive income from that. Or rather income in general, cash I can spend on things without losing in the actual sum invested.
In my "ideal" example, let's say due to the high diversification and continuing strong economy we gain +5-7% a year (~2800 a month). This I feel is the part that books, articles and investment gurus never seem to mention, how do you actually get money back when your investments are appreciating?
Bonds and Dividends generate a stream of income on their own and general management (selling assets that go completely south to recover parts of the investment) is clear to me (somewhat).
How do you go about shares that appreciated? Sell "excess" to maintain the original amount of cash in that particular asset? You'd gain money but if the value goes down you'd have to reinvest to keep the money the same. Only the delta of that would be the net gain and you'd need to keep (or know that you will have the money around then) money stored away.
How about shares that you specifically bought just for their dividends, do you just keep them, even when they lose in value (let's say we keep them until they drop by 20%)?
We keep our ETFs for let's say 8-10 years and cash out and ... then? Just keep the gains and reinvest? Reinvesting into the same asset after cashing out makes no sense, so we'd have to find something else, what would that be?
I hope you get my confusion here, let's say I'm saving for a nice car (40k), I save up, reach the goal, cash out, buy my car, done. Simple. Having a big pile of cash and investing it so the invested value stays the same while making money? Very hard.