File this post under “no dumb questions!”. It’s really easy once you do it once or twice, but to someone who hasn’t been investing for very long, the entire idea of investing money in the stock market and taking it back out can be really abstract or daunting.

Taking money out is basically the reverse steps from putting money in. Instead of clicking “buy” you click “sell”. Once the sell order goes through (in real time for ETFs for at the end of the day for mutual funds) it can often take 2-3 days for the money to “clear”. Then once you have cash sitting in your account, just click the transfer button to move it to your bank account. Then I’m PRETTY sure you know what to do from there!

There is one pretty big asterisk to this. If your money is in a special RETIREMENT account, like an IRA, 401k, 403b, TSP, 457, HSA, etc (as opposed to a regular brokerage account) then there might be some tax implications for taking money out before a certain age. Generally the magic number is 59.5 years old. Once it’s the calendar year you turn 59.5, then you can go ham on your retirement accounts exactly as shown in these steps. So if that is where your money is, best leave it invested and alone until then.

So there you have it. When people ask “How do you live off your investments?” this is what I do. Once a year, or whenever I need money I go and click sell and sell a very small percent of my funds, then live off that cash while the remainder continues to grow.

As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often.

-Jeremy