Alexandria2000: Let's try a more heretical approach. 
On early levels, you can build and war a little.
1. Beginning build order - try starting out by building one worker to improve tiles around your city. Build two warriors to get the population to 2 and then build a settler for a second city. Escort the settler with one of the warriors to keep it safe from animals. By the way, your worker is safe in you cultural boundary from animals, but not barbarians who come later.
2. Choose a civilization that works with your weaknesses. Since you have trouble with finances, choose a financial civilization and learn to cottage, especially adjacent to river squares. Good financial civilizations to begin with are Washington, Elizabeth and my favorite, Qin of China.
3. Research BW first so that when you are ready to build that first settler, you can chop a forest to speed it along. Slavery is a great civic, but at the beginning it's hard to understand how to use it properly.
4. Buildings: If you are not creative (Catherine of Russia for instance), the cultural boundaries will not expand on their own unless you also have religion in the city. Therefore, people often either build Stonehenge early or chop an obelisk early on.
5. Don't skimp on either workers or military units. One worker per city is a good starting point.
6. As you expand, look for city locations that have rivers (extra gold) or special resources that you can eventually develop. You'll also need some cities that can really pump out production hammers. Learning which is which just takes time.
7. Trading techs: In the beginning, I recommend trading techs including Alphabet. It's fun, keeps you in good graces with the AIs and keeps your research humming. Most trades will be in the favor of the AI by beaker count, so don't worry, especially if you can trade the same tech to several AI civs for different things.
8. Don't put off Currency too long. Markets, Grocers and Banks are the life blood of a financial civ.
9. If you have a military advantage, go for it! City Raider Promotions are wonderful. The obverse, City Garrison promotions, are also good for archery units in particular.
10. If you have stone or marble, or later copper and iron, try building the wonder that uses it. Even if you fail, you'll get gold for the hammers invested.
Civ IV makes it almost a necessity that at some point, you fight a war or two, so try to keep your military up, have barracks in production cities.
Let us know how this goes. Good Luck.
On early levels, you can build and war a little.
1. Beginning build order - try starting out by building one worker to improve tiles around your city. Build two warriors to get the population to 2 and then build a settler for a second city. Escort the settler with one of the warriors to keep it safe from animals. By the way, your worker is safe in you cultural boundary from animals, but not barbarians who come later.
2. Choose a civilization that works with your weaknesses. Since you have trouble with finances, choose a financial civilization and learn to cottage, especially adjacent to river squares. Good financial civilizations to begin with are Washington, Elizabeth and my favorite, Qin of China.
3. Research BW first so that when you are ready to build that first settler, you can chop a forest to speed it along. Slavery is a great civic, but at the beginning it's hard to understand how to use it properly.
4. Buildings: If you are not creative (Catherine of Russia for instance), the cultural boundaries will not expand on their own unless you also have religion in the city. Therefore, people often either build Stonehenge early or chop an obelisk early on.
5. Don't skimp on either workers or military units. One worker per city is a good starting point.
6. As you expand, look for city locations that have rivers (extra gold) or special resources that you can eventually develop. You'll also need some cities that can really pump out production hammers. Learning which is which just takes time.
7. Trading techs: In the beginning, I recommend trading techs including Alphabet. It's fun, keeps you in good graces with the AIs and keeps your research humming. Most trades will be in the favor of the AI by beaker count, so don't worry, especially if you can trade the same tech to several AI civs for different things.
8. Don't put off Currency too long. Markets, Grocers and Banks are the life blood of a financial civ.
9. If you have a military advantage, go for it! City Raider Promotions are wonderful. The obverse, City Garrison promotions, are also good for archery units in particular.
10. If you have stone or marble, or later copper and iron, try building the wonder that uses it. Even if you fail, you'll get gold for the hammers invested.
Civ IV makes it almost a necessity that at some point, you fight a war or two, so try to keep your military up, have barracks in production cities.
Let us know how this goes. Good Luck.
