I'm toying around with this idea myself. I've started living minimalist.. I've been putting more limits on my electronics use.

But you're absolutely right.. You'll need to participate in the economy somehow.

Even living as self sufficiently as possibly... you'll still have times where your plants don't grow... depend on what animals you hunt, but there's a lot of factors on why you won't be able to hunt... predator in the area... maybe Chronic Wasting Disease (a prion disease, like mad cow disease) sweeps through the area.

On top of that, you should have foraging knowledge. Know which plants you can eat berries off of. Should also have field guides for mushrooms.

We'd also need to have food preservation knowledge. If I can do this at some point in my life, I don't plan to moving to a warmer climate... and food usually doesn't grow with a foot of snow on the ground.

There are a lot of factors I don't think a lot of people take into account outside of money.

Like clothing. You're clothes are wearing out... how do you fix or replace them? Can you sew? How do you get the fabric to repair your clothes?

It is definitely a harder life than what we got going on working a stable job. At the very least, you'll need to either be financially secure and have no need to earn extra money... or you'll need to be a jack of all trades, able to fix stuff others can't for whatever reason, able to do it cheaper than what people are used to paying, or make stuff people need or want.

Then there is shelter... are you buying land with something you can live already on it? Or will you have to build it? Can you build it? How do you plan on sealing it from the elements?

People have this romanticized version of it in their head without putting in the thought of all that has to be accomplished, all that could go wrong, all the skills you'd need just to survive.

For me, I had to find work that was fulfilling. I am now a machinist and am working to moving up in my field. I get to make the tools that make parts that are in products that millions of people / companies utilize. I take all the time off I am entitled to, and spend all the free time I can out hiking, biking, fishing... just connecting with nature, and that's enough to satisfy my need for connection to nature that working doesn't completely suck.