What is an idle cash alert?
An idle cash alert lets you know when you have more uninvested cash than you intended in one of your connected accounts.
Think of it as a friendly nudge: “Hey, you’ve got dry powder just sitting there—do you want this much in cash, or should some of it be invested for a specific goal?”
Why idle cash matters
Holding some cash is healthy. Holding too much for too long can quietly slow you down, a problem often called cash drag.
Cash drag is the lost return from money that sits idle while the rest of your portfolio is working.
Over the years, even a small yield gap between idle cash and invested assets can add up to thousands of dollars in missed growth.
Idle cash alerts are there so you notice that drag early and decide intentionally what to do.
How idle cash alerts work in Enrich
What Enrich looks at
For each connected account, Enrich checks:
Your cash and cash-equivalent balance for each of your goals
How does that compare to an idle cash threshold you set (default value is 3%)?
When cash piles up beyond what looks “normal” or beyond your chosen threshold, Enrich triggers an idle cash alert.
Common reasons this happens include:
Recent deposits or transfers that haven’t been invested yet.
Dividends and interest are accumulating as cash.
Bond maturities, option exercises, or asset sales you haven’t redeployed.
How to set up an idle cash alert
Exact labels may differ slightly in your app, but the flow will look like this.
Set your idle cash alerts
From any goal detail page, edit your investment strategy's settings. Under the edit screen, go to "advanced settings" and find the "idle cash threshold" and set the percentage of the goal portfolio that is acceptable for idle cash (default is 3%). Setting a percentage threshold will alert you when more than the threshold amount of this goal's assets are in cash.
Pick how you want to be notified
Enable push notifications so you see alerts quickly.
Save your preferences
Confirm your settings; Enrich will now watch for idle cash above your thresholds.
What to do when you get an idle cash alert
When Enrich tells you that you have idle cash, treat it as a quick 5‑minute check-up.
1. Confirm why the cash is there
Ask yourself:
Did I just transfer this in for a planned purchase or an emergency buffer?
Did something mature or get sold, and I forgot to reinvest it?
Is this an amount I want to keep in cash for now?
If the cash is intentional (e.g., short‑term spending, emergency fund, or upcoming tax payment), you may simply acknowledge and ignore the alert, or better yet, set X% of your asset allocation focused on just cash with a specific holding group assigning the cash from each of your mapped accounts to this new allocation group.
2. Decide if some cash should be invested
If the cash is unintentionally idle, decide how much you’re comfortable putting to work.
Typical options inside Enrich:
A buy-only rebalance so the new cash fills underweight asset classes for that goal.
Leave it in cash on purpose - If you want liquidity (for example, you’re 2 months from a home down payment), you can leave the cash as is and be aware of the trade-off.
3. Place the actual trades
Enrich will not trade for you. From your broker app/website:
Use your goal’s suggested allocation or buy-only rebalance guidance as a checklist.
Place the needed buy orders (and any related moves you choose).
Once the trades settle and accounts sync back, your cash balance should drop below your idle cash threshold, and the alert will clear on the next review.
Tips for using idle cash alerts wisely
Keep a deliberate cash buffer
Decide in advance how much cash you like to keep in each account, so alerts feel helpful, not noisy.Tie idle cash to goals
When in doubt, map “extra” cash to a specific goal in Enrich so new dollars know where they’re headed.Pair with buy-only rebalancing
Idle cash + buy-only rebalance is a powerful combo: alerts catch the cash, and buy-only rebalancing helps you deploy it without triggering extra taxes from sales.Review alerts periodically
If you find you’re always dismissing alerts, your threshold is probably too low; if you never see them but often find big cash piles, it’s too high.