You are just getting a little intimidated due to some inexperience, that's all. So here is some bits and pieces of generic advice:
Falling behind in tech early on is not a problem. You can catch up later with a massive research campaign at near 100% after the colony rush to research techs that the AI take a while to get to and then trade those around for what you are missing. Which point in the tech tree to jump in for those unique techs depends on how long the colony rush is, but some good points are: advanced enviromental control, instant communications, space militaration, drones. Don't forget to exploit the minors. They are your ATMs for the beginning of the game. Sell most anything to everybody for whatever you can. The more that play, the more that pay. Do the tech mongering thing right, and everybody owes, everybody pays for a good part of the game.
Speaking of the colony rush, +speed picks are good if you need an edge there. And set that beginning budget at like 75% military and 25% research (or go all out at 100% military).
Onto taxes: morale will flatten out at around 54% by itself on most planets. Some may dip down into the high 40s, but if it goes any lower, it is probably destab at work. 40% is a decent tax rate. If that is what you need to work with, don't drop it just to try and maintain a high morale. Keep dropping taxes too much to maintain popularity, and you get a tax cut spiral that leads to you not being able to provide services and protection for your people. The only popularity contest that matter is elections, and that is based on empire-wide average morale. Constant morale boosts due to new colonies, research, and morale resource starbases will keep that overall morale high enough to win elections.
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