Welcome to Friday. I don't know about you, but this week has gone by relatively quickly for me. I've had more than my fair share of challenges at work this week, and the weekends bookending these workdays are packed solid. There's nothing like a full calendar to make the time fly.

And of course, watching my portfolios appreciate tens of thousands of dollars in mere hours doesn't hurt at all.

To celebrate Friday, this old dog will be taking the afternoon off. I'm headed for a retirement planning seminar over lunch and into the early afternoon. After that it'll be time to hit the links for a round of golf.

I'll report back next week sometime on what I learn at the seminar. I'll tell you this right now. My first reaction on receiving the invitation was that I didn't think I'd have anything to learn. In fact I would have tossed it straight away had the invite not come from an old friend now in the financial planning business.

But I came to my senses and realized that if my impulse was to toss the invite without thought, I was probably a bit overconfident. I probably have something to learn. I'll find out later today if there are any new tricks this old dog needs to learn.