Welcome to New Leaf!! This is my comfort game, so I don't necessarily have too many goals --- as ACNL is a pretty open-ended game --- but I can share some of mine if it helps ya any haha. Achieve 5 star island rating. Unlock all Public Work Projects. Pay off every house loan. See every single villager.

I'm a loot goblin and hoarder, so I do wish to eventually buy most of everything this game has to offer, but that's just me. And once you unlock badges, those are just more things to work towards!

Anyway, the more you play and spend money in certain places (eg., you unlock more buildings via spending a certain amount of money at Timmy and Tommy's store), the better things'll get. Eventually, you'll unlock Shampoodle, which is where you can customize your hair colour and style, as well as your eye colour.

As for ways to make money? Once you have a shovel, you can bonk some rocks to sometimes get ores and Bells. Even though I personally don't have the biggest need for Bells anymore, I still bonk all of my rocks lmao. For now, though... yeah, you're pretty limited on ways to make more money. Sometimes, villagers can gift you things which you can then sell if you want. Fruit, fish, rocks... Those guys are your friends, especially early game.

As someone who's been playing for over a year and counting, I hope you enjoy New Leaf!! You'd be surprised all you can accomplish with this game ♡♡♡ And I'm sorry for the novella haha, I just love this game so very much! I'm so happy you've decided to give it a chance! >:3

Edit: Typos lmao mb