Last year my family sold our home in Sydney and moved to Adelaide. We are now in the fortunate position of being debt free on our home, because of the difference in house prices, and have approximately $350,000 invested. The kids have settled into school here, and we don’t expect to return to Sydney.
With no mortgage repayments to fund each month there’s certainly validity in questioning whether you need to earn as much income as you have in the past. And as you highlight, there is also the potential for your investment portfolio to help contribute to household expenses. I’m going to assume that the bulk of your portfolio is in shares, perhaps via ETF’s or similar. Shares pay dividends, usually half-yearly. On a company by company basis, dividend income will bob around a bit, though if you invest via a fund, or have a well diversified portfolio, this will get smoothed out.
If your investment portfolio is managed on an administration platform, it may be that you can set up a regular withdrawal plan, where a fixed amount per month is paid out to you, with the administrator selling down whatever is required from the portfolio to make that cash payment.