Non varchar/nvarchar data types

Hi,

I want to run a validation on values present in columns with data types other than varchar/nvarchar (i.e. int/money/bool etc).

I want to filter out NULL and empty records.

i.e. for a column that is of int/money/bool/etc data type, is it worth saying 

RTRIM(LTRIM(col)) = '' OR col IS NULL

or should I just say 

col IS NULL

Thank you