Mark Ramprakash is expected to announce his retirement from first-class cricket on Thursday.

The former England batsman, scorer of 114 first-class hundreds, played in 52 Test matches and 18 one-day internationals.

It is understood that, at the age of 42, Ramprakash has decided to call time on 25-year career which began with Middlesex and has concluded at Surrey following his switch across London 11 years ago.

Ramprakash, thought likely to prove the last man in cricket history to make 100 first-class hundreds, was dropped by Surrey for the first time as he struggled for his best form at the start of this season.

He has scored 35,659 runs in 461 first-class matches since his county debut in 1987, and more than 13,000 in limited-overs cricket.

Ramprakash never managed to carry his prolific domestic run-making into international cricket, averaging only 27.32 in Tests - little more than half his productivity in county cricket - with two centuries and a career-best 154 against West Indies in Bridgetown.

His other century came against Australia at The Oval in 2002.

In county colours, he topped 1,000 runs in 20 separate seasons and three times made more than 2,000 - in 1995, 2006 and 2007.

An unbeaten 301, for Surrey against Northamptonshire at The Oval in 2006, was his first-class career-best.

Ramprakash is to hold a press conference at The Oval on Thursday, when it is anticipated he will confirm news of his retirement.

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Ramprakash poised to announce retirement

Imagine that this is the last day of your career. You roll into the office, have a brief chat with HR while you fill out all the necessary paperwork, and station yourself right beside the coffee machine to share the good news with everyone as they walk past the cafeteria.

You take an extra long lunch with your closest working buddies and have a great time because, for the first time ever, you don't care about walking past the boss's office after running a little late. Then you back up all your personal files and web bookmarks on the company laptop and start making your rounds to personally thank all those at the workplace who have truly helped you over the years.

However, it will only be possible to have this sort of relaxing last day of work if you have made the necessary preparations for retirement. Here are a few activities soon-to-be retirees should do before they call it quits:

Figure out a game plan for drawing down your assets. It's surprisingly common for folks to retire without a plan, which includes how they should efficiently draw down the nest egg they've spent decades building. Creating and following a solid plan will not only allow your assets to last longer, but it will also allow you to sleep better at night because you will be more confident in how much you can spend without depleting your savings too quickly.

Start living on your projected retirement income while still employed. One of the most accurate ways to test drive retirement finances is to start living on your projected income in retirement while you still have earned income. This way, there's still room to make changes and adjustments if theres a need.

Don't forget about Social Security. One major source of income after you no longer get a paycheck is going to come from the government in the form of a Social Security check. Monthly payments increase for each year you delay claiming between ages 62 and 70. Make sure you do the calculations to determine the best age to sign up for your personal situation.

Consider doing major home repairs. Many older homes can probably use a newer roof, more energy efficient windows, a kitchen remodel, and other repairs. If any of these major expenses are due in the near future, you might want to do them before you retire. These types of projects usually go over budget, which could throw your retirement estimates into disarray.

Consider refinancing or applying for a home equity line of credit. I think the psychological benefit of being debt free far outweighs the potential excess return you could get by leveraging your assets after you retire. But if you must, consider refinancing to lower your finance charges or applying for a home equity line of credit for potential emergencies while you still have a job. Once you quit, it will be difficult to qualify for loans.

Make sure you are aware of your retirement plan vesting schedule. The retirement account at your employer likely has some type of vesting schedule that restricts the portion of the employer match you can keep based on your years of service. The last thing you want to find out after you hand in your resignation letter is that you could have been eligible for a bigger chunk of your employer match if you only worked for another month.

Look into your tax situation. Once you no longer receive a paycheck, it also means that Uncle Sam is no longer getting a periodic tax payment from you. A smaller tax bill will certainly help your retirement finances. However, some folks may need to start paying estimated taxes throughout the year, and the penalties for not paying could be steep.

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A Checklist for Retirement

The Saudi Public Retirement Fund (SPRF) is considering raising the retirement age for government employees from the current 60 to 65, business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported yesterday. Female employees will still be put on obligatory retirement when they complete 20 years in service, said Fatima bint Muhammad Al-Ali, director of the female section in the fund. She pointed out that new changes in the regulations of the fund, which are soon expected to be approved by the concerned authorities, would include enabling inheritors to receive both the pensions of their deceased father and mother. Now, they should choose only one of the two pensions. Al-Ali said putting women on early retirement to provide job opportunities to unemployed Saudi women is not a successful policy. This solution, according to the studies and researches of the fund, provide only a limited number of vacancies, she said. She criticized the policy of early retirement and said it would lead to a disruption in productivity, especially in the sectors of health and education. The solution to the problem of unemployment among women is not by putting working women on early retirement but by creating more job opportunities particularly in the health and educational sector and also by improving the standards of university graduates through preparing them for the labor market, she said.

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Retirement age may be raised to 65

The past four years have seen layoffs, raise freezes, eliminated bonuses, foreclosures, upside-down mortgages, increased college tuitions, soaring gas prices, expensive groceries, wildly high credit card rates, and more. It's no wonder American household budgets have suffered.

When incomes aren't keeping up with living costs, and expenses are mounting, some savers may start to consider desperate measures, including taking money out of their retirement plans before reaching retirement age. Accessing 401(k) funds prior to retirement is tricky and sometimes confusing. Money can be removed in the form of a retirement plan loan or a hardship distribution. When considering any of these options, it's important to recognize all of the consequences, including which options are accompanied by stiff IRS penalties.

Hardship distributions from 401(k)s are subject to a 10 percent IRS penalty and regular income tax. The IRS gave you special tax benefits for contributing to your retirement plan, and they want to incentivize you to use the money for retirement, not before. To be allowed to take a hardship distribution, you must show you have an "immediate and heavy financial need" and you'll most likely have to prove you meet certain criteria. You can only withdraw enough to meet your need. In many cases, your employer may be required to stop your contributions to the plan for a specific amount of time as well.

Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) cannot offer loans, but the IRS is less stringent about 401(k) retirement plan loans. The maximum amount a participant may borrow from his plan is 50 percent of the vested account balance or $50,000, whichever is less. An exception to this limit is if 50 percent of the vested account balance is less than $10,000; then, the participant may borrow up to $10,000. Take note: Plans are not required to offer this exception, so check with your plan document for specifics. It's also important to keep in mind that while you likely made pre-tax contributions to your 401(k), you'll be making after-tax payments to repay your loan, which significantly increases the cost of the loan.

Such 401(k) hardship distributions and retirement plan loans shouldn't be a first consideration when you need money. Most financial professionals would tell you that damaging your retirement savings efforts in order to procure a one-time cash injection isn't worth it.

The truth is that it's almost always a poor choice; but every financial situation is unique. If 401(k) account dollars will just provide a temporary stopgap before you ultimately run out of money, leave your 401(k) alone. However, if you need the cash to put yourself on much better financial ground and a one-time withdrawal or loan will solve your financial fix, it may be reasonable to consider the possibilities.

Before taking either a 401(k) hardship distribution or a retirement plan loan, I'd suggest considering the alternatives below:

--Budgeting and trimming: Create a monthly budget if you don't already have one. Trim the fat from your budget to get extra dollars each month.

--Ask for a better debt deal: Banks and credit card companies may be willing to reduce your interest rates and lower your monthly payments. Oftentimes, they have repayment plans available to help you work out of debt at a reasonable rate.

--Get another job: Make some extra money with a part-time job.

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Should You Tap Into Your Retirement Funds Early?

(MoneyWatch) Continuing our look at how to assess your future retirement income, let's turn our attention to "systematic withdrawals," which are one of three ways to generate a paycheck from what you have stashed away. Note: In previous posts, I've called this method "managed payouts," but the term "systematic withdrawals" is more descriptive and won't cause confusion between the term "managed payout fund" used by some mutual fund families. For more background on the three methods, you may want to review my recent post, "My four favorite ways to generate retirement income."

Financial planners and writers will often tell you something along these lines: If you invest in a portfolio balanced between stocks and bonds, withdraw four percent each year for retirement income, and give yourself an annual raise to account for inflation, there's a roughly 90 percent chance that your money will last for at least 30 years. Hence, the justification for the so-called four percent rule.

My four favorite ways to generate retirement income Retirement income scorecard: Interest and dividends IRAs and 401k: 3 ways to generate retirement income

Method #2: Systematic withdrawals

The four percent rule is actually a good starting point for considering an appropriate withdrawal rate. But if you fall into one of the following two categories, you might want to consider withdrawing amounts of lower than four percent:

-- If your retirement investments are actively managed and incur investment expenses of more than 50 basis points (0.50 percent), over the long run you may fall short of the net rates of return that justify the four percent rule.

-- If you're married, both you and your spouse are healthy, and you retire in your early to mid sixties, there's a good chance that one of you will live for more than 30 years.

If either of these statements applies to you, you may want to consider payout rates on your retirement income of 3 or 3.5 percent.

In addition, there's a point of view emerging from some financial analysts, such as Dr. Wade Pfau, that the analyses supporting the four percent rule are based on a period of U.S. history that may have been a remarkably good time for stock and bond returns. It may be that future returns on stocks and bonds won't be able to support a four percent withdrawal rate. If you believe this, you may want to use a lower withdrawal rate.

In spite of the above thoughts, you might consider a higher withdrawal rate if you're willing to accept some chance of running out of money before you die, or if you're willing to curb your withdrawals down the road if your investments sour. In short, setting the appropriate withdrawal rate is both art and science.

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Retirement income scorecard: Systematic withdrawals

Each day brings new challenges that threaten us, and the Internet often resembles an enormous social megaphone with the volume cranked all the way up. So it's understandably hard to square this persistent outpouring of threats and unhappiness with the reality that the inhabitants of planet earth are living longer than ever before and inflicting less physical violence on one another. What if, God forbid, these turn out to be the best of times?

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So it is with the torrent of negative retirement news. Bad as things often look, people will continue to retire, and many of them will enjoy terrific lives in their later years. They will join millions of other Americans who have managed to do the same. What are their secrets? Here, culled from research studies and retirement experts, are 10 essentials for a successful retirement.

1. Planning. Successful retirements rarely happen by accident. They require planning, and it should begin well before retirement begins. Younger people do not need to have any detailed plan for their later years. Heck, many probably don't know what they'll be doing next year. But they should set up tax-favored retirement investments, contribute enough to trigger the top employer match, and place their money in stable and safe investments. Older people should begin in their 50s to ask questions about the adequacy of their retirement funds. They also should attack some of the big retirement issues: where they want to live, how they want to spend their time, and the like. At whatever age retirement becomes financially viable or physically necessary, they should have a more detailed plan and ways to achieve it.

2. Budgeting. Most people overestimate their retirement income and underestimate their retirement expenses. Well before the regular paychecks stop, many successful retirees will have taken a hard-nosed look at their retirement income and expense needs. Expense budgeting is crucial. Once the income and expense sides of your personal ledger have been completed, you can see if there's a gap that needs to be closed. Most likely, it will be closed by trimming expenses. Many experts say it's a good idea to look at your locked-in sources of retirement income--Social Security and traditional pensions--and match this amount to your fixed expenses: mortgage, utilities, insurance, fixed debt payments, operating expenses for your car, and basic household costs for food and other necessities. Then, look at the likely income stream from your investments and use those funds for discretionary spending on vacations, restaurants, and the like. This way, if returns on your investments don't fare as well as you thought, you won't have to eat into your investment accounts to pay expenses. When markets recover, you can resume your spending.

3. Homework. Retirement is many things, but a life of leisure usually must be preceded by a lot of homework. This is particularly true when it comes to healthcare costs. The average 65-year-old couple will spend more than $250,000 on out-of-pocket healthcare during the rest of their lives--the single largest unknown expense for most people. Medicare was complicated enough before health reform was enacted. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the law, anyone planning to retire in the next several years should spend time understanding how it will affect them. Other questions you should answer include: how healthy is the economy of the area you're thinking of choosing for your retirement home; what are the state and local tax rates in that area; what are state estate taxes like; do you have a good approach to spending down your assets in retirement, and what is the best strategy for you about when to begin claiming Social Security benefits?

[See Can You Manage Your Future?]

4. Realism. None of the planning, budgeting, and homework you do will provide the basis for a successful retirement unless you're realistic in your assessments and assumptions. Most people, for example, actually retire several years before they earlier said they would. Likewise, they say they will continue to work well past their 65th birthday. Careers do seem to be trending longer since the recession, but there is still a mismatch between plans and actions. Be honest with yourself.

5. Balance. The key to a lot of good things in life is a sense of balance. Successful retirements involve a good balance between expectations and reality. This doesn't mean sacrificing your dreams. It does mean road-testing your dreams to see what it would take to make them possible.

6. Health. No surprise here. Good health is the "knock on wood" wish of every retiree. What's different today than a generation ago is the widespread recognition that good health is no accident, but the probable result of good diet and exercise habits. These habits need to start now, not when you're 70 (although it's never too late to begin). It's been proven that strenuous exercise, with heavy weights and sweat-inducing cardiovascular workouts, can help even people in their 80s and 90s. Investing in good health is as important as socking money away in retirement accounts.

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10 Must-Have Retirement Needs

(NAPSW)Retirement is a concept thats constantly being reinvented. A comfortable retirement wasnt even a widespread economic goal until after World War IIand its changing again, as the economy is making that goal more difficult to reach. Fortunately, seniors do have options.

According to executives at The Lifeline Program, seniors must now look well beyond traditional tools if they want some sort of retirement.

For most seniors, the notion of ending their work life at age 65 with a golf course membership and a gold watch is no longer the norm. Recent studies show that most seniors are working longer with little hope of an idyllic retirement.

Traditional sources of retirement income can no longer be relied on. Pensions have become rare and many seniors have not saved enough. The recession and housing crash have hurt retirement accounts and housing values.

Financial-planning experts suggest saving more, but thats not always possible. Other options do exist, though, and its important to do your research. For example, performing a reverse mortgage on a home, selling a life insurance policy through a life settlement and exploring alternative investments are all tactics that can add financial security and help seniors realize some of their dreams for retirement.

For Joan Clary (age 70), a substitute schoolteacher from Oakhurst, Calif., the dream was to meet actress Betty White. Fortunately, Clary won the recent Lifeline Meet Betty White Facebook contest and was flown to Los Angeles to meet the actress. Clary was thrilled to win. As I turn 70, I realize Betty is one of my last role models. Its a joy to meet her after admiring her for so many years, said Clary.

Founded in 1989, The Lifeline Program offers life settlements as a new financial planning option to baby boomers and retirees. The company partners with insurance agents, broker dealers and financial planners to establish life settlement business lines. For more information, visit http://www.thelifeline.com, follow the company on Facebook at Facebook.com/LifelineProgram, on Twitter at twitter.com/LifelineProgram or on YouTube at youtube.com/user/TheLifelineProgram. You can also call 855-GO-BETTY (855-462-3889).

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Retirement In Need Of Reinvention

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Guardian Insurance & Annuity Company, Inc. (GIAC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) today announced the launch of a new website to help plan sponsors and plan participants navigate the increasingly complex 401(k) marketplace.

Effective July 1, 2012, The Department of Labors (DOLs) new requirements for plan service providers to begin providing plan sponsors with enhanced fee disclosure went into effect. Guardian Retirement Solutions launched Understanding Plan Fees (www.guardianretirement.com/understandingfees) to provide information and tools to help plan participants and plan sponsors understand their retirement plan fees, the services they pay for and the value the different service providers bring to the table. The website is open to any individual or company.

Simply providing a statement without any explanation has the potential to confuse and frustrate plan participants. Guardians website educates the consumer by providing information on not only the fees they are paying but the services and value that different players involved in administering a 401(k) provide, said Jason Frain, Vice President, 401(k) Product Management and Development, Retirement Solutions. At the end of the day, its important for sponsors and participants to understand who is working on their behalf to ensure they have a tax-deferred benefit to save for retirement.

The Guardian website includes a host of tools and educational resources, including:

Shortly following the changes on July 1, plan sponsors will begin providing their participants with annual and quarterly information about plan and investment fund fees and expenses. Fee disclosure focuses on the DOLs initiatives to increase transparency surrounding plan and investment expenses as they impact plan sponsors and participants.

Its impossible to assess the fees on your 401(k) statement unless you understand the services different providers are performing. Guardians Understanding Plan Fees (www.guardianretirement.com/understandingfees) lays out in plain English the team of players who each provide unique services and expertise to create a great retirement solution, said Frain. . In the final analysis, its important to understand the value you receive for the fees you pay.

About Guardian

A mutual insurer founded in 1860, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America and its subsidiaries are committed to protecting individuals, business owners and their employees with life, disability income, dental insurance products, and offer funding vehicles for 401(k) plans, annuities and other financial products. Guardian operates one of the largest dental networks in the United States, and protects more than six million employees and their families at 115,000 companies. The company has approximately 5,000 employees in the United States and a network of over 3,000 financial representatives in more than 80 agencies nationwide.

For more information about Guardian, please visit: http://www.GuardianLife.com

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Guardian Retirement Solutions™ Launches New 401(k) Fee Disclosure Website

Sooner or later, each of us will come to a point in our life when we cross over to join the ever-growing group of retirement-age people. Many of us will wonder how it is possible that we have become 65 years old. Hopefully the shock will be momentary, and we will get on with living.

Of course, to experience a fulfilling retirement life we have to plan and prepare for this moment. Rolling into age 65 without having taken the necessary steps to prepare can result in confusion, stress, and boredom. Worst of all, those who dont prepare risk missing out on opportunities to take on inspiring second careers or exciting new hobbies.

It is not easy to plan and prepare for retirement when today already seems to consume 110 percent of our time and effort. One can easily become overwhelmed with the myriad of investment options and convoluted requirements for Social Security and Medicare.

Amid all of this complexity, there is one rule of thumb to understand and follow. It readily applies to financial preparations for retirement but also extends beyond that: Live within your means. Or to put it another way, dont spend your money before you earn it. This rule of thumb can help you to focus your finances before and during retirement. Heres why living within your means is the key to a fulfilling life before and during retirement:

You avoid adding debt. Buying on credit has been the downfall of many hard working people. Granted, there may be emergency situations where you have no choice but to break out the credit card to tide you over. The problem is buying things on credit you do not need. Spending money you do not have for something you want, regardless of whether you can afford it, is a recipe for disaster. A better course of action is to save up until you can pay cash instead of charging it. Dont spend your money before you earn it. And dont try to keep up with your neighbors by chasing more bright and shiny things. Debt avoidance is especially important in retirement when your income is reduced.

Saving becomes easier. If you are living within your means, when you get to the end of the month you should have something left over. Since you are not spending this residual you can put a portion of it aside into savings. If you continue to set aside a little something on a regular basis it will grow. However, if you are living beyond your means, this potential savings will go toward credit card interest or other black holes.

You discover what makes you content. Living within your means gives you a better understanding of what is most important to you. Instead of buying impulsively, you carefully weigh the cost and start to make better decisions. You realize it is not necessary to always eat at five-star restaurants. Suddenly Levi jeans look just as good as $200 dollar pants. A new house is not so critical if it will lock you into a big long-term mortgage. You start to grasp the reality that material possessions do not equal personal freedom. If you cannot afford it, you discover that life will go on and you can still be content.

Dave Bernard is not yet retired but has begun his due diligence to plan for a fulfilling retirement. With a focus on the non-financial aspects of retiring, he shares his discoveries and insights on his blog RetirementOnly the Beginning.

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How to Prepare for a Fulfilling Retirement

(MoneyWatch) How much retirement income can you generate from your 401(k), IRA, and retirement savings? It's a critical question because it will affect just how much money you'll have to spend for the rest of your life. The answer can vary widely, depending on a number of factors, the most important being the method you use to generate retirement income, as discussed in my recent post, "My four favorite ways to generate retirement income." Your age, sex, and marital status also have a significant influence. And your income will depend on a number of economic factors, such as interest rates, dividend payout rates, and annuity purchase rates in effect at the time you retire.

In order to help you discover the answer to the question I posed above, here's the third installment this year of my quarterly retirement paycheck scorecard series. It shows you the amount of retirement income that can be generated from $100,000 in retirement savings as of the beginning of July 2012, for each of the three methods of generating retirement income I summarized in the post mentioned above. You may want to review that post for background and to familiarize yourself with the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

My four favorite ways to generate retirement income IRAs and 401k: 3 ways to generate retirement income

Method #1: Interest and dividends only

One way to generate retirement income is to invest in a mutual fund that pays a regular dividend and then use just the interest and dividend payments to cover your living expenses. Because you aren't dipping into your principal, there's a very good chance you won't outlive your money. And this method offers the maximum flexibility and access to your retirement savings. The downside is this method produces the lowest amount of retirement income, as you'll see by comparing this scorecard to the next two scorecards in this series.

Here are the estimates of annual dividends paid from various Vanguard mutual funds that have regular dividend payouts. I've also included the payout rate -- the annual income as a percentage of the investment -- for the purposes of comparing it to other methods of generating retirement income.

How has the chart changed since the second quarter?

Compared to last quarter, the payout rates for the Wellesley and REIT funds have declined slightly, while the payout rates for the Wellington, Dividend Growth and Equity Income fund have increased slightly. These changes are due to the net result of changes in dividend payouts and interest rates, and appreciation in the underlying fund values.

Note that these funds have different asset allocations between equity and fixed income investments, which is one important reason for the differences in income. The Wellesley fund is invested roughly 37 percent in stocks, with the remainder in fixed income or cash. The Wellington fund is invested roughly 65 percent in stocks with the remainder in fixed income or cash. The Dividend Growth and Equity Income funds are invested nearly 100 percent in stocks, while the REIT index fund is invested nearly 100 percent in real estate investments.

All but the Dividend Growth fund pay dividends quarterly, while the Dividend Growth fund pays dividends semi-annually. The above amounts assume the payout rates for the past 12 months will continue for the next 12 months. Your actual income will change to the extent that future dividend payments are increased or decreased from the past 12 months.

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Retirement scorecard: Interest and dividends