Work and Play Pave the Way: The Importance of Part Time Work in a Lifecycle Model

US males labour force behaviour shows lifecycle effects. We develop a lifecycle model of individual labour supply, with a single financial asset and non labour income. With widely used preferences, we derive the analytical form of the value function and optimal labour participation for any period, t. Consumption and savings switches its form as participation changes. A spell of part time work has strong implications for earlier decisions on participation, consumption, savings and the marginal value of leisure and wealth. We apply our framework to explain the increasing prevalence of non standard retirement noted in the literature.