Is that the Irish tutorial? Because that's pretty fun to play even after the tutorial and turning it into a kingdom. There is relative safety there too and if you can boot the Norse out it can be really solid.
Money is hard though and depends on how and who you play with. If I want to play with money I usually play tall rather than wide and go with somewhere like Brittany.
Yep. Took a positive turn after that message, joined a crusade, sent just one army of mercenaries who cost like 90 piety because they were feudal knights leasing my city. Ended up getting 1200 gold when the crusade won, used that to fund some buildings and expansion and now bringing in like 12 gold a month. Not sure how this stacks up in general terms but it's far more than I'd seen prior.
Like I said I started poorly learning mechanics so I still don't have all of Ireland, and one of my vassals defected or somehow lost his county to the kingdom of France who i cant possibly beat in a war so gonna be hard to complete the kingdom anytime soon. But getting there slowly anyway and enjoying the journey, very addictive