So I have to admit, this sounds like another language to me. We will have $100,000 each year to invest. Currently we are just saving for retirement so I guess that is our ultimate goal. Do you recommend using a financial planner or are there any books you recommend so I can understand things like Principal conservation? We have a nice salary and a fairly simple life but we definitely need more education in the area of personal finance. I think part of the reason we have chosen to pay of the mortgage is because we are lost when it comes to investing.
Sorry - I could have been clearer.
Ideally you shuold have a plan on how to invest your money, and the investment order (linked above by seattlecyclone) is a great place to start. If you want a really detailed plan, you can create an Investor Policy Statement, but some/many people don't go that far.
Your Asset Allocation (AA) is simply what you invest in. For example, you might put 75% of your money into an SP500 index fund (a collection of the 500 largest stocks) and 25% into a bond fund. Or you might just choose to put all your money into a Target Date Fund that does all this for you.
Principle Conservation is just protecting your capital (or principle). If you have all the money you need, your biggest concern may be protecting that money, as opposed to trying to grow that money into an even bigger pile. For those people they may choose to hold more bonds or cash and fewer equities. For most of us that are still rapidly saving, we are in the "accumulation phase" which basically means we want our money to grow. This means we want a considerable portion (≥60%) of our money in equities. Two good, low-cost equity funds are Vanguard's SP500 fund and their Total Market Fund.
If you feel lost with investing, I highly recommend you read JL Collins Stock Series. Its very understandable, easily digestable and (gasp) funny.
https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/You don't even need to read each post - the most important information is in the first fifteen posts (or so), and you can read each post in 5-10 minutes.
Hope that makes things at least a little bit clearer. Please ask questions if you have them.