Large cash balances feel safe and quietly lose purchasing power. The question is how much is genuinely reserve.
Uncertainty tends to push balances into cash. That is reasonable for a defined reserve and expensive for everything beyond it.
The practical exercise is to size the reserve deliberately — months of spending, known near-term outlays, a buffer for the business — and then treat the remainder as investable.
Phasing the remainder back in on a schedule removes the need to pick a moment, which is the part that keeps people in cash.