With all of the new users on Steem I thought it would be appropriate to give an extensive overview of how to cash out Steem and Steem Backed Dollars (SBD) for Bitcoin and cash. You can sell your Steem on many exchanges but I choose BITTREX (BITcoin TRading EXchange) because I trust 
Here is Richie's post about the History of Bittrex.
https://steemit.com/bittrex/@bittrex-richie/a-little-history-of-bittrex-com-how-it-all-started
First of all, sign up for a Bittrex account then get first level verified by adding your identity or phone number.
Now that you are logged in, click "wallets" at the top.
Type "steem" in the search box on the right.
Click the + sign next to Steem or Steem Backed Dollars (SBD), whichever you want to sell.
Generate a new address, which will be called your "memo." You will use this every time you send the Steem or SBD to Bittrex. It doesn't change.
Copy the memo!
Back in your Steemit wallet, click the down arrow next to Steem or Steem Dollars and "Transfer."
Put bittrex in the account name and paste your memo you just got from bittrex in the memo box. Make sure to spell BITTREX correctly or you will lose your money! if you use Poloniex exchange you should be even more careful.
Confirm the transaction with your active or owner key.
Now let me explain something about transaction fees. Steem has none. Bitcoin fees however are 0.001 on Bittrex which at the high price point today of 17,000 dollars that would be $17 per transaction. If Bitcoin goes up another 10x you will just have lost 170 dollars just by making a transaction! Do not send your coins around a lot! Bitcoin transactions only costed pennies in the past, these fees are becoming a problem. You can send Litecoin to Coinbase much cheaper! The transactions are not much faster however. You still have to wait for "authorization" on Bittrex. @AppleCrisp today informed me that the transfer fees on Poloniex are smaller than Bittrex. But if you use smaller transaction fees you risk your coins getting stuck on the Bitcoin blockchain because miners are spamming the network trying to get more fees for themselves! Oh how I await the day where all blockchains are Graphene with free transfers. So if you have less than 50,000 satoshi's worth of steem you cannot even sell them on Bittrex. That is about 1 dollar at this time. This minimum trade started because of tradebot spam made by the Quatloo trader which I will teach you about later.. Then if the transaction fee to Coinbase is multiple dollars, it doesn't make sense to cash out Steem unless you have 20-40 dollars or more. But remember, the current value of Steem Dollars are actually 1.70 right now. So this is a basic explanation of the current system of cashing out! I hope you understood it!
Depending on how quick you want to cash out you may want to layer your orders higher to catch a peak and get more bitcoins for your Steem.
Click the chart and the numbers will populate in the order form for you
Successful sell. Let's send the Bitcoins to Coinbase so we can spend them with the Bitcoin Debit Card from Shiftpayments.com!
Click the minus symbol next to Bitcoin
Enter your Bitcoin address from Coinbase and the amount you want to withdraw. 0.001BTC transfer fee will be deducted from the amount. If you use 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) to secure your account you will be asked to enter it upon clicking Withdraw. If you do not use 2FA you will get an email you will need to confirm when you withdraw!
Click "Accounts" at the top on Coinbase to get your Bitcoin address.
Now confirm email and wait for the transaction to go through. :)
Sign into Coinbase and check your balance!
You can now spend your Bitcoin directly on many sites, tie your CoinBase to your bank account and cash (takes 5 days to verify and 3 days for a transfer) out or get a Bitcoin debit card from Shiftpayments.com and use that for purchases or to get cash out of an ATM. I also have mine tied to Paypal so I can use it on ebay. It costs 10 dollars of Bitcoin for your Shift Debit Card.
Now find something nice that you want and buy it!
I hope you have learned how to properly transfer your Steem into Real Money! Please follow me @Travelling for more great information and entertainment!