Sierra 24 pilot reported an engine failure occurred just after ATC cleared the aircraft to land. The pilot then safely performed an off-airport landing at a nearby field.

Narrative

I was headed to ZZZ1 from ZZZ to fill my tanks of which were 7 - 8 gallons per side. There was a band of heavy rain outside of ZZZ1 so I decided to try ZZZ2. There was rain that showed on the radar after turning toward ZZZZZ; so I decided to go back to ZZZ. About 7 miles out I was set up for landing and told by ZZZ Tower to report 3 miles. At 4.5 miles they cleared me to land and my engine sputtered; came back for 4 seconds; then sputtered and died. Because my mind was set on a fuel gauge reading on the fullest tank; left; I didn't try to switch tanks and knew that the Sierra goes down at 900 ft./minute; I had very little time to make a decision and set 85 kt. and looked for a landing spot. I was able to land uneventful in a field with no injury and gear down with no damage in the field.After landing the tank gauges were still not showing empty on their readouts. I have just under 6 hours in this plane and still reviewing its operating characteristics. I needed to do a better act of piloting on emergency procedures by switching tanks first. However; being so low to land at airport; in that moment felt that a landing spot was priority with a plane that has such a bad glide ratio.