How exactly does someone live off their investments? VOO as an example

I’m one of the many who are relatively young (30) and investing for the long haul. I’m 100% VOO, in my Roth IRA and taxable, the opinions on that are a completely separate topic.

Say I’m 60 and have been investing for decades and am ready to retire/live off my investments.

How is it done exactly?

I have dividends reinvested and since I don’t cash out and only contribute, I don’t pay much attention to my accounts. Currently working full time which pays for what I need/investing/saving the rest.

My original plan in my head was to just sell the shares as needed, thinking they’ll be way more than what I paid for them. Then I realized if I’m no longer working and selling shares, that could be a huge problem. As the shares will just be less and less.

So I don’t really know how it’s done. I’m not too familiar with dividends as I just reinvest them.

Is there a way to get $ without selling shares? I’m assuming that’s the dividend payment? How exactly does that work?

Thanks for any info!

Just curious who’s out there doing it

So many posts are about people still investing and working, endless debates about VT, or VTI or VOO etc lol but not enough posts on how to actually live off it once you’re ready to retire and hopefully have a ton of shares by then