Advice:-
If your playing the 'no war' game, destroy all of your weapons (not bases) for both defensive and offensive. You won't be attacked by any players of computers.
Spend some GC on population and money. In the long run, with population, you'll be able to improve education, health and the number of corps in your country. This will vastly increase your income.
Playing the war game, will earn you about 3T profit (increased as war level increases, so I've seen) after the war is over. Make no mistake, 1 wrong move, and your down and out for the count. Being in a fed is a huge bonus for this.
With military, you'll need a nice amount of pop, money (you may run into debt, but should pay off after war level 1 - 2) and of course the tactics. Again, get into a fed.
Get yourself into a nice federation which is willing to assist you with your financial crisis. There's many out there, but i'd recommend:-
Soviet Fed
The Protectorate
Economic Powerhouse
Finally, my own Fed - Avalanche.
I'm sure people from all of them, and myself (if you join) can assist you.
Kind Regards
Sunny