That is a very basic yet very interesting question to which the answer is, "we really don't know." Good thing, though, Ana Rute Cardoso, Paulo Guimaraes and José Varejão have provided us with some basic numbers to help answer that question. In their latest paper from the Institute for the Study of Labor entitled, "Are Older Workers Worthy of Their Pay? An Empirical Investigation of Age-Productivity and Age-Wage Nexuses," they find that work productivity of an individual increases until the age range of 50 to 54. More important to productivity is, of course, how much you're being paid for productivity. Their finding? Wages peak around the age 40 to 44.
Now their paper is a product of good research as they use longitudinal employer-employee data spanning over a 22-year period. So their results are really something that you should think about when planning for your way ahead retirement.
Their paper actually centers around one important question, which is also equally interesting and is worth anyone's attention: "Are older workers worthy of their pay?" Their answer? Yes, indeed:
"At younger ages, wages increase in line with productivity gains but as prime-age approaches, wage increases lag behind productivity gains. As a result, older workers are, in fact, worthy of their pay, in the sense that their contribution to firm-level productivity exceeds their contribution to the wage bill."
Now, most of us really don't stop and seriously think about the future. I mean, only older people do that, right? . We really don't know when we're going to retire because it depends on a lot of things: do you like your work? do you like your work environment? will you still be needing money at that time? "Most of us" because for the rest, they have the ability to look forward and plan ahead--making goals for themselves on what to do at this age or that.
Well now, because of Cardoso et al.'s paper, we have a number to look forward in terms of retirement: 44.
Or 54.
It actually depends on two things by the time you're considering retirement: if you like the pay more than your work, retire at 44. But if you like your work more than your pay, retire at 54.