According to a 2005 Merrill Lynch survey, “when probed about their ideal work arrangement in retirement, the most common choice among boomers would be to repeatedly “cycle” between periods of work and leisure (42%), followed by part-time work (16%), start their own business (13%) and full-time work (6%). Only 17% hope to never work for pay again.”

Varchaver, N. (2005). Pitchman for the gray revolution. (cover story). Fortune, 152(1), 63-72

Graph based on data from Merrill Lynch. (2005). The Merrill Lynch new retirement survey: A perspective from the baby boomer generation. Retrieved November 12, 2007 from http://askmerrill.ml.com/pdf/RetirementSurveyReport.pdf

“The New Retirement Survey,” conducted for Merrill Lynch by Harris Interactive in collaboration with Age Wave, builds upon conventional wisdom that boomers are not interested in pursuing a traditional retirement of leisure. The majority of boomers relate they plan to keep working and earning in retirement, but will do so by cycling between periods of work and leisure, thus creating a new model of retirement…Harris Interactive® fielded the online and telephone survey for Merrill Lynch and Ken Dychtwald, between February 5 and March 1, 2004 among a nationwide cross section of 2,348 U.S. adults ages 40-58 of whom 1,061 were men and 1,287 were women. Data were weighted to reflect the total U.S. adult population ages 40-58 for age, sex, race, region, education and household income.”