Order of data type fields

[Danny Teok]

What performance impact does the ordering of data types in a table have on the following:
1) INT, INT, INT, INT, INT, INT, BIGINT, DEC, VARCHAR, VARCHAR, VARCHAR,...,VARCHAR
2) VARCHAR, VARCHAR, INT, INT, DEC, VARCHAR, DEC, INT VARCHAR, INT, DEC, DEC, VARCHAR, VARCHAR,..., mixed up.

what is the best practice? I am inclined to say (1) where string fields should be left to the 'last' parts. If so, why?