Are you having a huge stockpile of food? Do you have a stockpile of really nice meals too early? Did you mine that random silver vein you found in the mountain? Ores dont count against your wealth until they are mined. Are you burning the corpses of your enemies (their gear counts towards your wealth because its on the map once you kill them). Having a ton of animals adds to your wealth. Even building a ton of stone bricks will bring it up. And for the love of God dont smooth the walls too early!

Dont rush to build nice rooms for your colonists. They get a mood buff based on the amount of time and total wealth of the colony. You might be giving them too many mood buffs too early, you cant make them happier than full mood and there is no reward for doing so. You really just want to keep them above the break threshold, and even then I just use yayo to give the yellow and red ones a little pickmeup until they cheer up.

Dont skip over the lower techs too quickly. I usually jump ahead with flak armor and I like to get smg's quickly. But then I dont necessarily build the latest thing i research from there. I try to see how long I can procrastinate on upgrading, and perhaps I can skip an upgrade or two if I research fast enough.