What do you wish you knew when you started?

Looking for wisdom from more experienced players so when I look back in a few weeks or months I wont want to bash my head against the wall.

Just read Baldrs guide, it has everything you need to know.

https://www.torn.com/forums.php?p=threads&f=61&t=16034448&b=0&a=0

There's a guides list in Tutorials and Guides with useful stuff, it'll be way easier if you go over those too.

Advice, protect your money: don't keep a lot of cash on hand, tjeres also guides on how to keep your money safe. Try to get to Lvl 15 asap so you can unlock flying.

The best way to improve is guidance

Whether you choose to use guides or people as your guide, make sure your source is reliable

Keep a balance between your income and the money you spend on training. Your long-term gains and investments will thank you

I was really lucky to be in a good faction from the start, I didn't realize how important that was at the time. I would recommend you get yourself to level 15 as quickly as possible (using Baldrs guide) and then look around for a good faction. Also it is fine to move on if the first faction doesn't feel like a good fit for you. A good faction should help you with all the questions you have about the game and include fun people, try to look for the highest respect faction you can find that will take you. 

Just to take it all in stride and not be in such a hurry :) good luck!

If you're struggling to make money like you think 1 million$ is alot

Try buying 100 units of an item from bits bob like gasoline for 95$ 

And then resell on item market

You buy 9500 dollars of gasoline and flip on item for 50-60k per day

Everything you do should be progress towards a honor bar or medal.

It's much easier to earn merits if you start early and keep track of your progress in the Awards page.

I documented most of the important lessons I learned when I was new. 

https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=threads&f=61&t=15975518

There's some good advice here.

My advice is to use traders instead of the item market to sell your goods.  Prices arent as high as the item market, but when you factor in the 5% item market fees and the 10% mug that you're saving, prices are pretty good.

Just go to torn exchange and save the hassle and time.

Get into a good faction, but ALSO don't be shy about leaving a faction if the leadership is treating you like a slave they can abuse.  I joined a 4m+ respect faction early on, and the perks jump-started my progress by a lot, but I also had to deal with an utter shitheel of a leader who was a total narcissist and hypocrite.  For the perks, and cause I THOUGHT no other decent respect faction would take a newbie like me, I stayed there way longer than I should have.  Decent respect factions will take newbies that are plenty active and have a good attitude, so keep that in mind, and don't shackle yourself to any group that makes playing this game an exercise in stress.

I'm almost 900 days old.  I could probably level up to about 40 by now.  I'm just now working on the History degree.  It was a mistake to wait this long.  

I wish I would have had History by the time I reached 15.  Having access to the museum would have helped a LOT.

Words of wisdom and hindsight and regret from a knackered old goat ie me.

It is so very very very easy to make big strategic long term blunders in this game so very easy ...

I made 1 or 2 big blunders early on....  no deranged all in gambling thankfully which a lot of field mice do. But i made other big mistakes .......

I have always been good at earning money, very good, mainly with running a bazaar. I have earned a lot of money over the years...

When growing in the game game i made my first strategic blunder. i went all in clicking nerve 2 crimes just to be high in the crimes hall of fame for a good 2 or 3 years .... That was a massive massive big mistake ... i dearly wish i had spent that play money training my stats ....

The other awful mistake i made was being in the SSL gym for so long ... that is bad really really very bad indeed.

I literally 'should' have 50 billion stats instead of 13 billion which i have now.

Another 'minor' error i made was having no toleration faction perks for most of the time.... im seeing that now $1.5 billion a year rehab fees and only going up .....

Anyways there is more knowledge in the game now. Try to be on the right path from the very start.

I have learned from my mistakes and fixed them. Its for the best to not make those mistakes in the first place.

I wish I'd known about scripts and extensions. I never realised they existed for a few months, upto a year, when I first started. No idea how it missed the whole eco-system.

1- Wish have started use 3 xanax a day since lvl 15;
2- Joined a decent faction with 1m respect or more;
3- Use the steadfast to train.