[Gerrard]

You are doing fine. The Rifter will probably be the best ship you can fly for a while. Just because you can train up the cruiser skill within a week, doesn't mean you can necessarily fly it properly without the support skills to go with it. Another thing that you'll hear a lot is to only fly what you can afford to lose. Probably not such a big deal for you as your insurance will cover the ship and you'll equipment is reletively cheap.

The thing with this game is that you can play solidly for days on end, but because the skills are time based, you can have loads of money but nothing to spend it on. Conversely, you could just let your skills train for a while and not play, but then you won't have the cash to to use them. If you're planning on playing for longer, look into training your learning skills to help speed up all skill training times.