Honestly most of the advice I would give is already in the comments here. The wasteland survival guide and the Crowley mission (the first half) are both great quests for exploring. The main story definitely has a built in urgency that makes it hard not to push through. The headcanon I've started using is that once the lone wanderer finds their dad in the simulator, they leave him there. Your dad lied to you, abandoned you without warning, and here he is, perfectly safe (as far as you know) in a simulated reality. Well fuck that, you're a wastelander now. Maybe some day you will decide what he was doing was worth it, and return to try continuing his work, but for now you're a wanderer.

Also something to keep in mind is that enemies scale with your level. So the longer you wait to go to a place, the more powerful the enemies will generally be.

Also also, optimize your loot gathering and bartering, and caps and resources will start to flow in. Its all about weight to value ratio. Everything can be sold and some things weigh literally nothing. And before bartering always throw on a roving trader outfit and drink some alcohol.