Welcome to CFC!
First off, what level are you playing? Some levels handle this probelm differently. If you're playing Chieftan, then you can disregard this message, for now. At the Chieftan level, you can run a deficit and not worry about it.
I like what you said, about establishing roads and getting the resources. That right there is a good first step.
Without knowing what level you're playing, what gov you have, I'm just going to throw out a couple general concepts.
First off, get out of despotism as quickly as possible. Beline for Monarchy (You can generally - but not always - get there faster than Republic.) This will get rid of any penalties you have that come with Despotism. Once you have Monarchy/Republic, go for Literature and then Currency. Of course, if you can buy/trade for these from the AI, then by all means do so.
Once you have Literature build library's in your core cities. Or all cities, if you play like I do.
Once you have Currency, build Marketplaces. This will noit only increase your gold income by 50%. Plus, as an added bonus, when you have one to two lux's hooked up, you get one smiley face each. For three to four, you get the one face for the first two, then two each for lux three and four. Three each for lux five and six, and four each for seven and eight. This means you can have as much as 20 smiley faces for 8 lux's, as opposed to just 8 w/o a marketplace.
Next, make sure you're only roading the tiles that your peeps are working or will work. No sense roading a tile they won't use for a couple thousand years.
Finally, Tech Research. There is a soft-coded limit of 4 turns per tech. (Soft coded because you can change this in the editor.) So once you've learned a tech and are starting research on a new tech, make sure you don't put your science slider any higher once you've hit the four turn limit. No sense wasting the money when you could bank it.
Also, build more cities. The more cities you have, the more income you have. Expand expand expand expand. And trade with the AI as much as possible. I used to play regent, and had a hard time with tech parity because I wouldn't trade. Now I'm on Monarch, and get parity very early because of trading with the AI. You may want that military edge. . .but you need to get there first. And by selling techs to the AI, you can make money that way. Get GPT deals or outright cash. And when you sell to one, sell to the rest, even if you only get 1 gold for it. Because if you don't sell it, the AI will. And you might as well get the gold for it.
Whew. . .really spit that last paragraph out. . .
