I'm currently reading Surviving off off-grid by Micheal Bunker. It's a Christan book, and although I don't agree with him on everything, it's very thought-provoking. He talks about history a lot and the lessons we have not yet learned and how we went from an agricultural society with little need for money to an industrial one with a giant need for it.

Even before I started reading this book, we started an independence fund. Every time we do something ourselves, which we would otherwise have to pay others to do, say haircuts. We put the estimated money we would have to spend in our independence fund, which is currently our downpayment fund.
I've always been fascinated with the idea of how little money we could possibly live well on. I know I could live on a rock, but I wouldn't thrive nor would my family. So we are in a constant search to learn more and to find out our 'number', what is enough to thrive? The balance between our dreams, the time we spend working for others and the time we spend doing things for ourselves.