Lifestyle
What ‘retirement’ really means to Glenn McGrath
54-year-old Citro ambassador Glenn McGrath talks retirement, embracing change and finding your purpose.
By Alex Brooks
Glenn McGrath says there’s a difference between ‘retiring’ from work and continuing to live your values and purpose, which he does through his work with the McGrath Foundation to raise money for breast cancer.
Glenn sat down with Citro at his home in Queensland, where he lives with his wife Sara and daughter Madison (and 2 gorgeous cats called Chocolate and Garibaldi). Glenn’s older children James and Holly live interstate.
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Purpose is key to retirement planning
After a great career as a fast-medium pace bowler, Glenn retired from professional sport in 2006 at the age of 37.
“I put absolutely no thought into that retirement before it happened,” he says.
Not that Glenn would recommend that. These days, he believes retirement is best planned through the lens of your purpose and values.
“It’s about finding what you have a passion for and what you enjoy doing and then just working it out,” he says.
“There’s no formula and everyone’s completely different. Some people might need $50,000 and some might think they need $5 million just to live the life they want.”
Finding what you want to do in retirement is about looking at your income needs, your purpose and values and finding what gives you motivation to maintain a growth mindset.
Glenn’s father died in 2023, and he’s watching his mother get her head around what retiring means for her.
“I keep asking her: ‘What’s your purpose? What do you want to do?’ And she’s not sure and that’s a big concern to me because when you retire, there’s life left to be lived,” he says.
Embracing change after 50
Turning 40 makes you pay attention to getting older, but for Glenn turning 50 was the time to embrace change.
Glenn and his wife Sara moved from Sydney to Queensland after he turned 50, buying their house on the Sunshine Coast sight-unseen during the Covid lockdowns.
Sara has her own fashion label called It’s a Fad, where she designs and sources clothing to sell online and in her flagship store in Noosa Heads.
Glenn is the president and co-founder of The McGrath Foundation and co-owner of Outback by Air. He also does corporate speaking work and coaches kids in cricket in both Australia and India. It’s fair to say that ‘retirement’ is just a state of mind for Glenn.
The family home has a much-loved movie room, a gymnasium and a sandstone fire pit in the front paddock, where the family gathers to watch the kangaroos at sunset.
“I never thought I’d live in Queensland - I’m a New South Welshman through and through,” he says. “If you cut me, I still bleed blue but I couldn’t be happier. The sunny coast is beautiful.”
Glenn even loves the pythons that find their way into the house every now and then. He’s become the family’s designated snake and spider remover.
“I grew up on a farm, so I’ve been around snakes and spiders from birth,” he says, explaining he removed more than 8 snakes from inside the home so far this year.
“I just pick them up and carry them out and put them back in the bush - off they go. They never worry me,” he says.
There is one thing that scares him, though - and that’s singing or dancing. Glenn says you will never see him on Dancing with the Stars.
It’s people that keep you going
As can be expected, Glenn is deeply reflective about losing loved ones and the grief that follows. “I guess it’s a bit scary when you turn 40. It’s not too bad, but 50… especially in the last few years when we’ve had Shane pass away and Andrew Symonds, and Rod Marsh was in his 70s, which to me is still too young, but Warney was only 52 and Symo was only 48. I went to far too many funerals and it’s a bit of a wake up call, really.”
He knows from his first wife Jane’s sudden passing that when the worst happens it’s the people who are still with you that keep you going. “I had a lot of other things to focus on, two young children – James was 8 and Holly was 6 – so I was focusing on them and out of that, the McGrath Foundation has just continued to grow and grow and the support has been amazing.”
Glenn’s father died in 2023, without ever thinking about his own retirement. He’d been ill for nearly 9 months.
“Farmers just keep on working - they don’t retire,” Glenn says.
He finds solace in the Australian bush, loving the wide open spaces and the country lifestyle his mum and dad taught him growing up in Narromine, near Dubbo in New South Wales.
“I often find I need to get out into the country or the bush, it does something for me,” he says.
“I found that as we get older, all the experiences and all the good things are great but the negative things that you have happen through life and the bad things seem to jump to the top sometimes.
“I think it’s important just to switch your brain off for a certain period and just relax.”
Do hold your breath
To switch off, Glenn free dives - a form of breath-hold diving that lets you linger under the water without scuba equipment. “I just find it so relaxing - just dive down to about 10 meters and hang there. It’s so quiet, and occasionally, if you’re in the right spot, you can hear a whale.”
He is a licensed scuba diver - as is his son James, now 24 - but he prefers not to hear the “Darth Vader breathing” from the scuba gear and keeps it simple by free diving.
“I’m not one who wants to be on the water. I prefer to be under the water,” he says.
Growing up in the bush meant he had a few childhood holidays near the beach, but he never liked being on boats or surf boards.
“I’ve never been a big one for surfing. I might do a bit of body surfing, but it’s being under the water that I find relaxing,” he says.
Some things just take time
Just as Glenn likes being beneath the water, he also enjoys being above the landscape - especially if he’s flying.
It took him 25+ years to get his flying licence and he loves seeing Australia from above, especially if he’s near his brother’s large property in western New South Wales.
While he concedes that Rome was probably built faster than it took him to get his helicopter licence, the effort stands as proof that we never have to stop reaching for our goals.
“[It] was like a little bit of weight lifted off me [when] I finally achieved that,” Glenn says.
His next ambition is to take Sara to lunch in the helicopter after landing it in his front paddock.
“I haven’t done it yet, but it’s a nice thing to do,” he says. “I think you get a different perspective on things when you look at them from the air. It’s just magnificent.”
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