I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Kelsey Banerjee and discuss cash flow tips for self-employed fitness entrepreneurs and millennials.

The full article originally appeared on the Pulse App blog.

Have you ever heard the phrase “automate your finances” but never truly understood what that meant? Are you supposed to use a robot? Is there a self-spending credit card created by Elon Musk that you’re unaware of?

Believe it or not, it’s neither (yet) ! Automating your finances is actually pretty simple, but will require some up front work on your part. The most important step to get started is to know what your financial goals are. Without establishing your goals, it’s very difficult to automate the process to reach them!

Have you ever found yourself sitting on way too much cash? Maybe you received an inheritance, a large bonus at work, cashed out employee stock, or maybe you’ve simply been saving for awhile and you aren’t really sure what to do with it. 

You know that it isn’t earning anything sitting in the bank, but what’s the alternative? Here are five areas to focus on improving your financial situation with the excess cash.