A new study by Merrill Lynch shows that, despite the economic downturn and the hit that many retirement accounts have taken, one group of retirees or aspiring retirees seems to be doing just fine – the wealthy. This story at MarketWatch has the details.

While many Americans’ retirement looks bleak because they don’t have enough money saved, a majority of wealthy baby boomers say their standard of living in retirement will top that of their parents, according to a new survey.

Eighty-four percent of high-net-worth boomers, age 46 to 64, said their retirement will differ from their parents — and of that group 86% said they plan to be more active, and 72% said their standard of living will be higher, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey of 1,000 people with investable assets of $250,000 or more.

Seventy percent of these boomers said they’ll work in retirement, at least part time, “to remain more active and engaged;” 26% said they’ll go back to school, 24% said they plan to learn a new trade, and 20% said they’ll start or keep running their own business.

When asked what word they’d use to describe retirement, 35% said “freedom,” 31% said “opportunity,” and 21% said “relaxation.” Just 9% said “uncertainty,” according to the Merrill Lynch survey.

One could argue about how “wealthy” is defined here because, odds are that typical retirees with a quarter million dollars in investable assets probably doesn’t think  of themselves that way, but, the point remains the same – if you’ve managed to build and preserve a sizable nest egg in recent years, you’ll probably do just fine.

Speaking from personal experience, the part about most baby boomers finding some sort of part-time work  in retirement makes a good deal of sense because, in addition to giving you something to do, it also takes some of the strain off of drawing down your retirement money. The trick is to find something that doesn’t seem like work.