An American expat who retired at 53 said he got 3 things right on his decades-long FIRE journey

• Todd Miller retired at 53 because he did not want his life to be defined by his career.
• To ensure post-work fulfillment, he recommends people "retire to, and not from, something."
• He has published a book and travels around the world from his Thailand home.

Todd Miller was 27 and working in entertainment management when he sketched out his first life plan.

"I didn't have the vocabulary back then of 'financial independence,' but I said I wanted optionality," Miller told Business Insider. "I wanted the ability to live and work on my own terms."

He picked age 50 to retire — what the personal finance industry now calls FIRE, which stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. He would have about 25 more years to build a career and still have time in retirement to work on his passions.

Over the next two and a half decades, Miller lived in various US cities and in Singapore and Hong Kong, working in leadership at media and entertainment companies.

As he approached age 50, he said he found himself thinking that "the only reason to continue working was to buy a bigger house or a longer boat. But that's not going to move the needle in terms of what I want out of life."

In 2019, just three years after the initial age target he had set for himself, Miller took the plunge and retired at 53.

Today, he is four years into retirement and living in Phuket, Thailand. He told BI that three things help ensure he does not regret his decision even for a "nanosecond."

1. Waiting until it felt right

While Miller said he was financially ready to retire at 50, he didn't feel emotionally or psychologically prepared to leave the workforce. As an American expat, there were practical concerns, too.

Miller and his partner were living in Hong Kong at the time. He did not want to retire there, but moving away would have disrupted their then-middle school son's education. So he waited.

In 2019, when the city faced a wave of political protests, he knew their time in Hong Kong was up. His son had also just started attending boarding school in the US.

Professionally, he realized his job brought him a "diminishing" amount of satisfaction, and he preferred to focus on his hobbies. It was time to retire.

2. Ensuring financial stability through passive income

Many people in the early retirement community quit the movement because of financial hiccups.

Some are hit with unplanned expenses or feel financial stress because of languishing investments. Others experience income fluctuation and find that they have essentially replaced one type of stress with another.

Nearly all of them struggle with calculating how long they will live and how much they need to save — making sure they won't outlive their money.

Miller saw the calculation differently.

Traditional FIRE calculations suggest that early retirees should estimate what they need to retire by tallying their yearly expenses in retirement and multiplying that number by 25. Instead of calculating a sum of money that depletes with time, Miller focused on annual cash flow that would fund his lifestyle.

"How much income am I going to generate after taxes without having to do anything to earn that money? That's the number that I care about," he said.

Miller's income streams are 100% passive, which means they require little to none of his time to manage. He said most generate recurring and predictable income either monthly or quarterly.

A significant chunk of his portfolio is parked in tax-advantaged assets, such as real estate and government bonds.

Here's how he breaks down his portfolio:

1. Real estate, such as owning single-family homes in the US: 50%

2. Liquid investments, including municipal bonds, income funds, Treasury bills, and money market funds: 40%

3. Private equity and private credit investments: 10%

Miller calls himself a Fat FIREe, a term used to describe those who retire without sacrificing their lifestyle post-retirement.

His passive income now funds the family's lifestyle in Phuket, Thailand, where they live. He said they budget over $100,000 annually for trips, and they spend two-thirds of their time traveling.

Their son attends college in the US. While they pay for his travel and expenses out of their passive income earnings, his tuition is almost fully funded by a 529 college savings plan that Miller set up while he was working.

3. Filling his days mindfully

Some FIRE devotees return to work because they don't have enough money, while others miss the camaraderie, or feel like they've checked off all their retirement plans.

Miller knew he would have to be intentional about his retirement.

"It is important to retire to something, and not from something," he said. "Unless there's a reason to get out of bed in the morning, retirement may be an unfulfilling experience."

He gave himself two goals: Write a self-help book and travel.

Since retiring in 2019, he has published his book and traveled around the world. In the last year, he completed a primate trekking trip in east Africa, cycled from Cambodia to Vietnam, and went on a Pacific island-hopping tour.

He and his partner plan six to eight trips a year. This year, they have booked trips to visit countries across Europe, have planned a holiday in the US and Canada, and are going to watch the Olympics in Paris.

He also fills his time with passion projects. Miller writes a travel column for a Phuket publication and said he raises funds for children's organizations in Uganda and Cambodia.

Are you part of the FIRE community in Asia or Europe? If you've got a story to share, get in touch with this reporter: shubhangigoel@businessinsider.com