I invest in a portfolio of stocks in HK, USA and Singapore. I monitor the movement of my portfolio and report the gain (or loss) daily in my Facebook page. 

My portfolio has a capital of S$4 million. It was created 3 years ago, with a smaller capital, but increased over time to $4 million. 

I  received the following questions regularly::

a) How much are from dividends, realized capital gains and unrealized gains?
b) Why don't I realize the gains and take it out to spend?

There questions are irrelevant. Let me explain.

If I realize the gains or collect the dividends, I would have to reinvest them. I do not need to take out the gains in cash because I have sufficient spare cash in my bank account. What do I do with the additional cash?

In fact, I am more inclined to invest my spare cash, rather than take them out. 

If I sell the stocks that have a gain, what do I do with the cash (from the original investment and the gains)? I have to reinvest it, right?

The correct approach is that I can take out from my portfolio any amount that I need to spend, e.g. go on a holiday, buy a property, start a business or other purpose. If I have spare cash in my bank account, I do not need to take out money from my portfolio. 

It does not matter whether the money in my portfolio is in the original cash (which is uninvested), or cash dividends, or realized gains or unrealized gains. They are all the same. 

There is a difference if the unrealized gains are from illiquid investments, i.e. the market value cannot be realized unless they are sold. In my case, most of my investments are liquid investments that can be sold at the market values. (I do have some illiquid investments, but they tend to show a unrealized loss).

It is difficult for me to answer question that are asked from a different perspective. 

Tan Kin Lian