When someone in your office retires it is usually best to get them a group gift from everyone in the general area(or from the office if it is a rather small group).
A retirement gift basket is a great gift because it is fairly easy to customize for what the person retiring links. If he is a golfer you can either buy a golf related gift basket or golf related items if someone is making the basket.
You can get retirement gift baskets from many local flower shops which generally sell gift baskets. You can also order one online that will be shipped to nearly anywhere in the United States. If you decide to make a gift basket for the person that is retiring you can buy all of the items fairly cheaply at a local crafts/gift store and buy the merchandise that goes in it wherever it is sold(for example golf stuff at a sporting goods store).
If the gift basket is from a group of people it is best to make or buy one that is fairly large so it does not look like a “cheap” gift. If it is only from a single person or a few people a smaller gift basket will do just fine.
If you are making the gift basket always put the larger items in the center and slowly build out with the smallest items going on the outside perimeter of the basket.
Finally be sure to have a camera ready when the person receives the gift basket so you can take a picture of the finished product, the person will love it and it will not stay as is for long!
Recently I went to lunch with a friend of mine and the discussion of personal finance and health came up. We actually at the time discussed two different items “personal finance health” as in the health of your finances and then “personal finance and health” as in how you financial situation can affect your physical health.
1) Personal Finance Health
My wife and I got married in April 2009 and since then we really have not really discussed finances other than opening a joint checking account. Is this a bad thing? Maybe. But we are both financially responsible and neither of us spend too much money.
Recently we decided to make a spread sheet of all of our various accounts(savings accounts, checking accounts, 401ks, IRAs, and other investments) so we can do a month on month camparasion to see how we stand financially.
Right now on average our savings climb month over month but we really do not keep track of what our real networth is. This is going to change.
See right now we know we are financially healthy, but we do not have an easy place to see exactly how we are doing. Soon each month we will know our exact personal finance health.
2) Personal Finance And Health
We have some friends that spend spend spend and do not really have that good of personal finance health(see #1 above). They are also not doing well with their physical health. They are always worrying if they can do something because of the issue of not having enough money.
This is taking a toll on both their physical health and health of their marriage. See if they worked on their personal finance health(see #1), the physical damage and emotional damage to their marriage would be reduced to an almost non issue.