(1.41) Money and general Start

I leave the wheel as it is. I colonize at least 3 planets as quickly as i can and research economy first. Depending on planets if they are plain with zero bonuses Ill do the first one as Economy with 2 farms and 1 factory and rest banks. The next two are research if I can do it. I do not fiddle with the global wheel at all.

Since you get 5k I bleed negative for 100 turn sometimes, using my survey to get chunks of cash here and there. I build the factory first and usually buy it outright. I do not build a fleet until I get the tech that has tech capital and manufacturing capital first, UNLESS there is an immediate threat such as nearby pirates or a major that is warlike such as Drengin or Krynn.

Typically I build 3 fleets of 4 small and that holds off wars for quite a while. I continue to colonize as fast as I can using the 3 constructors to Colony ships technique if planets are nearby.

I do things a little differently than Larsenex does. In my current game, for example, I wasn't very lucky in my position and have only been able to colonize two other worlds due to location and the other races grabbing what's around. Playing on an immensed sized map, 25 Majors, rare minors, tight clusters and uncommon planets with uncommon habitable ones. One of my first colonized planets went with research and the other was for money. The global wheel is put at 50% manufacturing, 30% research, and 20% economy. Playing my own custom race I start out with 7000b.c. and usually run a negative income for 2-300 turns. How do I continue like this? I play real nice in the beginning. I sell open borders to anyone I can, I sell and trade as much research as I can and I spam constructors early on to build up my planets and to capture as many resources as possible before the AI does. This way I can keep selling them durantium for 500b.c. a pop for most of the races I meet. You get the resource back after so many turns and then you can sell it again. This is how I maintain a positive cash flow (I try to always have at least 2000 on hand for emergencies...) while trying to max my manufacturing and research. Once I capture enough planets and can build up my economy (usually around turn 3-400) I no longer have to worry about selling stuff all the time. So far, play against Gifted AI, this strategy has worked out well for me. YMMV depending on how you build up your worlds and interact with the AI.

I play where everybody has room to settle.  I end up getting 20-30 planets or more.  AI settling has become more aggressive in these kinds of maps and that is cramping my style.    I move the wheel to about 40% research 40% manufacturing, 20% wealth.  I buy a few initial buildings to jump start the first planets.  I build planets according to bonuses, and try to find one or two high quality planets as wealth generators.  In the meantime, my economy slowly bleeds money.  I get survey ships up and get money from artifacts and that helps ease the pain.  Sooner or later, I start going bankrupt, repeatedly.  It makes little spikes in the faction strength graph that you can recognize later in the game.  Because I have so many planets, all in manufacturing focus doing their initial build-up, the forced switch to all income is incredibly powerful.  It shoves several hundred credits in my account and gets me back in the black.  I adjust the global wheel until we are just making a profit.  That lasts a while as I am pouring out ships and buildings and making more and more maintenance expenses.  I go bankrupt again and the cycle repeats.  Then, those wealth planets are full of farms and markets and such and change focus to wealth.  The economy starts slowly growing as those planets grow and others come on line.  The economy gets strong enough I can slowly start nudging the wheel away from wealth.  Later in the game, I will have 10%-15% wealth and be making hundreds per turn.

You will need to play a bit to have a ratio of research/manufacturing/wealth planets that fits your map.  I lean towards a very research heavy mix, myself.

As to when to build fleets, don't ask me.  I am a terrible source of advice on that.  I wait and wait and then start researching military techs late and not wanting to build ships until I get one more boost on my weapons choice or something.  I spend my time dodging all the space pirates and monsters. My last two games I had all 7 factions I was playing against DOW because I was such a weakling.  What they didn't seem to realize was I had made an awful lot of progress on that military research, and when I started making my warships, they were rather effective.  I was proud of that until the AI started adapting to my weapons and defense choices.  That was a rude surprise and a different story.

Wealth planets for me will depend on its location and bonuses. An isolated planet (not within 6-10 spaces of another planet) not near a border with wealth bonuses will usually become a Wealth planet,. Otherwise, it will become research. If there are none in my ZoC, then I will not have a wealth planet until later.

Outside of the aforementioned scenario, I do not bother with wealth until mid to late game. I am always operating on a loss for the first 150 turns or so, usually. I maintain my funding through trading off treaties and governance and colonization tech, especially if I can get hold of a minor race. Abusing minor races is the way to go. My wheel is almost always between Research and Manufacturing. Only rarely do I go bankrupt for a turn if I did not pay attention to how much money I have.

Wealth only comes in for me when I am done with research. I usually tear down all of my research improvements and replace them with wealth or culture improvements, depending on planet, location, bonuses, and available space.

I also do not bother with ships until I feel war is imminent with a nearby race. Ship maintenance is the number 1 money sinkhole in this game. I do not mass produce ships until I have unlocked precursor techs. Before that, it is only as necessary to defend my ZoC.