Writing Your Own Retirement Speech - Some Hints

By Nick M Grant

A retirement speech is your best opportunity to convey best wishes or congratulations to a retiring coworker, or your only opportunity to express your feelings about a lifetime of employment. Either way, it is the last moment in your career, and one of the most important. Do not leave a retirement speech to the last minute. Successful careers deserve an equally well planned retirement speech. Despite the anxiety that sometimes comes with public speaking, it is certainly not a time to become too anxious.

If you would like the perfect vehicle to tell someone congratulations on their retirement why not use a retirement speech? It will not be as easy as you think to do, so give yourself plenty of time to plan it out. Retirement speeches should tell the audience about your feelings-remember this is the very last step of your professional life, so make the most of it.

You will need some time, not only to plan out the speech, but to write it out. Then, after it is written, put it off to the side for a day or so, and put it out of your mind. Go do something else. Go play golf, go to a football game-something.

After you have given the written speech a rest, come back to it. Read it out loud to yourself. Does anything sound really stupid, or uncharacteristic for you? OK, thanking everybody and their brother may be unusual for you, but other than that, does the speech sound normal? If so, ask a spouse or a friend to listen to you.

Then, standing in front of your audience, relax and go through your retirement speech. Pay attention to the speed of your speech-don't go too fast, that's something that is common. Just relax and be yourself.

As you practice in front of your audience, think of one or two absolutely unforgettable things that happened during your career. Take advantage of the one or two things, and weave them into your speech-they can definitely reflect on you, your past and your livelihood then, and possibly even into the future. Best of all, one or two things wisely chosen will keep you from talking endlessly.

Your practice audience can tell you what you need to work on, and after having done that, take a minute or two and make some note cards just to keep yourself on track.

Of course, adding humor to any speech is always a must. While it does not have to be gut-busting, do make it so that at least a few people grin. If you are really at a loss, get onto the good old Internet, and start Googling "retirement jokes"-you will undoubtedly come up with something that you like. Or jokes on any other topic that you might like, for that matter.

Some people are so lazy that they can't even be bothered to write their own retirement speech. Those people will either buy a speech-and yes, you can do this from the Internet, or hire someone to write it. More power to them, but personally, writing the speech yourself guarantees that you get things right.

For more retirement planning tips including retirement homes, investment and party ideas check out http://www.easyretirementplanning.us; photo courtesy of www.cartoonstock.com

Great Ideas For Retirement Gifts

By Kelly Hunter

Whenever people retire, you always want to get them a gift. There are some gift ideas that are played out, however. Ideas like custom pens, wooden clocks, and things like that are played out. Just because someone is retiring does not means that it's the end of their life. In fact, it's just the start. You have to remember that people who are retiring do not lose their good humor. That is why many people are finding out that the best retirement gift ideas are the ones that are funny. You have to think that most of the gifts that this person is going to get are going to be very deep and meaningful. Why not get them something that is going to make them laugh so that they can see that good times are still ahead. It's going to make you feel good, and it's going to make them feel good.

Now, there are a few different ways you can choose to go about doing these retirement gift ideas. Most of the funny gifts you can get a person that is retiring are small gag gifts. Although they may be too small to be given as a single gift, it is cool if you can put them all together in a gift basket. In fact, gift baskets are one of the best ideas you can have when it comes to retirement ideas. This way you can give that person a variety of things to laugh at. Now, what you put in it is going to be up to you and is also going to depend on that person's humor. One of the classics is a small pad of paper that says retirement to do list. The funny thing about these pads of paper is that they only have one line to write things, because most people do not have much to do when they retire. There are also some funny books out there that give you some ideas for funny do's and dont's when you are retired. These can be fun books to get for people.

The last thing that you have to do is find a place to pick up these retirement gift ideas. You can start out at local stores, and usually you can find a great place at your local mall. However, if you want to save some money, then you may want to go ahead and start looking online first. By simply typing in retirement gifts in a search engine, you are going to come up with tons of ideas, and most of them are going to be at a good price. Pretty much, when picking up these kinds of gifts, you are going to want to think outside the box. Do not do the same thing that everyone always does, because that is not going to get you anywhere. You need to remember that everyone loves to laugh, and funny retirement gifts are the best thing in the world. A good rule of thumb is, if you think it's funny, they are going to think it's funny. If you are afraid that the retirement joke could be too hurtful, then you may want to go with something a little different.

Kelly Hunter owns and operates http://www.bestretirementgiftideas.com and writes about Retirement Gift Ideas Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelly_Hunter; photo courtesy of federalretirement.net

401K Withdrawal Rules

By Candis Reade

401K Retirement Plan was created in order for those working individuals to have a good substantial amount to have with when they retire. Yes, you have set aside a part of your income in order for you to live a life you want to live when you reach the age of retirement or when you want to retire from working. However, what if you are into a financial emergency, you need a substantial amount to pay for your medical bills and other expenses, what you should do? It is suggested that you should only withdraw money from your 401K only when you do not have any option left. Remember, you are slashing money out from your future, and if you will always do this withdraw and withdraw money from your retirement plan you will be shocked, there is no money left for you when you retire. Be sure you know the 401K withdrawal rules before withdrawing the money. It is not as simple as withdrawing money from the atm machine.

You should be familiar with 401K withdrawal rules before you decide on withdrawing money from your retirement plan. Most likely, the retirement plans of which working individuals have will only allow withdrawal only if it is under the so-called term financial hardships. What are these? Most of the reasons that are classified under such term are: death of the workers spouse or a big medical bill.

Most of the employers set up 401K withdrawal rules based on the guidelines that the Internal Revenue setup. This means that when you are in dire need of cash immediately, then supported with a reason under financial hardship, you are eligible for such withdrawal.

Here are four reasons that under 401K withdrawal rules that would allow you to make a withdrawal:

1. When you incur a surmountable amount for medical bills either for your spouse, family or even you.

2. Preventing the foreclosure of your home.

3. Purchasing a house which will become your primary residence, this excludes paying your mortgage.

4. Paying for school fees either for post-secondary or university for your dependents, spouse and children.

One of the 401K withdrawal rules that you should remember is that when you withdraw money based on the reasons mentioned above you will be suspended from making any annual contributions for the period of 6 months. Remember, when you need cash that getting money out from your 401K retirement plan will affect your future. It should be your last resort.

Candis Reade is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about401K withdrawl rules, please visit Early Retirement Plans Today for current articles and discussions. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Candis_Reade

Photo courtesy of www.mmhabits.com

Retirement Planning

So, do you have plan where to spend your retirement days? Retirement living in other countries may have its pros and cons. Below is a video showing the retirement benefits of living in a first world comfort and amenities while spending in third world prices.

With the recession, many of our retirees lost a fortune in the stock market and maybe opt to retire overseas to save money. Watch the video below, and think about it: