Tips?

I'm no expert either, but I'd say the fact that you're just building one of everything on your planets is your first problem...
you should have some kind of general strategy in mind when playing--focus on culture, military, or economy, etc--and then build to supplement that.

As far as tips, one of the things I've tried a couple times and has worked very well is when starting the game... I immediately focus my economy on Social projects and Research, and only leave about 10% on Military spending... and use my starting credits to purchase a few colony ships to send out and grab up worlds. Then when I start to get low on credits, re-adjust the sliders to get things flowing normally again.

I'm still learning the ins and outs of developing planets as well, but so far it seems best to specialize your worlds. If you want the world to be a producer of starships, build a stardock and then mostly factories... if I need a research boost, colonize a planet and build mostly labs... so on and so forth.
You can also make each planet focus on one area or another. So when first colonizing a planet, i find it helps to make that planet focus on social production, so it can get some buildings constructed quickly... then switch it around once it's up and running.

I then go on to make all sorts of screw ups through the rest of the game and generally humiliate myself in front of the entire galaxy, but getting an early game lead can help make up for that.

specialize planets. make one planet an industry planet which churns out ships, another a research planet. another, tax money (entertainment for good morale, some food facilities, and a market thing).

With enough industry, you can churn out you ships just as quickly. also, adjust your sliders and stuff for your tax rate (keep approval just above 50%) and try to have your budget in the green with a slight profit. if you aren't building ships, put the military slider to 0%. if you have enough research to accomplish your mission in campaign, then put research at 0%. If your planets are all filled up, then put civil/social(whatever the name) slider to 0%.

Im not sure, but I think I read a thread about the spending sliders in Galciv2 and it said that if you say have 33% in military and you arent building any ships, it gets automatically divided between research and social.

Anyways, to the starter of this thread, If you dont want to be attacked I suggest building ships throughout the game instead of just 1 per planet. The AI is like a pack of hungry piranhas if you have no military, even the good civs. If you can get 1st or 2nd in military they will be kissing your ass in no time. As for the money problem, try setting your political party as the feds, and changing your race traits to reflect what you are lacking in-game (economics, ship bonuses, social production, military production, etc.)

On beginner you should have no money problems. Practice on cakewalk for a game or two if you do.

Here are my tips for start up on beginner;

First, increase the spending to 100% and increase taxes to the point that your approval is about 60%.

Increase military spending to 60%. This should get you a colony ship from your home world in about 7 turns.

On your home world build or buy factories first followed by Market Center, Labs and entertainment. Do not build a farm until later.

As you colonize other planets consider buying the first factory then build your starport. If you choose not to buy the factory you will still get the starport in about 4-5 turns if you emphasize social at the top of the planet screen,

On a tiny or small map your home planet should be able to build all the colony ships you will need so start your other planets on constructors immediately. After you have a starport and factory remove the social emphasis to get the constructors faster.

Run for all the mining resources asap they are important and the AI will snap them up if you don't. At beginner level you should be able to get just about all of them.

Keep an eye on moral and try to keep it over 60%. Adjust the economy sliders as needed and don't get too far behind in Research.

When you population has maxed out at current food levels build a farm on high quality planets but do not build on food bonus squares and never more than one farm.

The key imprivements are factories and more factories, labs, market centers, entertainment and embassies in that order. Build orbital fleet manager when it becomes available and build moral and influence special projects.

If you tend to go for influence/diplomatic victory, you still need to research military techs asap. Unlike GC! the AI will jump on you if you are weak miltarily. At beginner level you should be able to stay on top in power then you can choose your route to victory whichever way you wish

Keeping funding at 100% is very important, as has been said.

Buy one or two factories on your starting world so you can kick out a continuous stream of colony ships.

Focus on ship production on the smaller galaxies, a balance of ship production, social production, and tech on the larger galaxies.

Don't try to save your starting funds for a rainy day. It's raining aliens, get moving! On the other hand, be careful of expanding too fast on large maps, as you can go broke just paying the maintenance if you focus exclusively on expanding.

Legato107, no, that's not quite what happens, the money just rolls back to your treasury. So you're better off zeroing the military slider if you want the money spent on social and research.

When you population has maxed out at current food levels build a farm on high quality planets but do not build on food bonus squares and never more than one farm.

Noob question - why not build farms on food bonus squares? (too high of a pop cap and resulting problems?)

Building on food bonus tiles is fine. You'll probably need a morale improvement to balance it out though.

No matter where you start and no matter how isolated you are the best advice I can give when you begin is to start studying propulsion. This is usually what I always research first. By doing this you increase your speed and range right away. It helps you get a leg up on exploration and colonization in the early game. After 3-4 propulsion techs start researching other things.

Building on food bonus tiles is fine. You'll probably need a morale improvement to balance it out though.

Cool...that's what I was thinking (and doing). I actually like high pop planets - gives me more fodder for my transports.

No matter where you start and no matter how isolated you are the best advice I can give when you begin is to start studying propulsion. This is usually what I always research first. By doing this you increase your speed and range right away. It helps you get a leg up on exploration and colonization in the early game. After 3-4 propulsion techs start researching other things.

I'm also a big fan of getting propulsion tech early (and redesigning all your basic ships to take advantage of the speed). Getting to resources and creating new colonies faster and earlier can be huge.

Noob question - why not build farms on food bonus squares? (too high of a pop cap and resulting problems?)

It's not a problem if you don't mind dealing with it. I just prefer to have more control on population. If you build on a bonus square you might have some big moral problems or not. Once you have VR center you will be able to control moral on any planet up to it's cap.

Building on food bonus tiles is fine. You'll probably need a morale improvement to balance it out though.

Unless you focused on morale bonuses in your racial ability picks and political party, that's a bit of an understatement, I'd say.