Cheat engine is also a way to get money without installing mods. Also, the Spiffing Brit showcased a "glitch" that allows for unlimited money. (search it on youtube)
Unfortunately that exploit can make your save useless if you use it too long - it breaks the tutorial. You're better off just cheating money in, save yourself the time.
Iv been messing with this exploit the moment I first opened the game about a few weeks ago now (thanks Sseth for the free game and thanks spiff for the easy exploit) and noticed the colony will die in about 2-2.5 years if you only do black market trades maybe less. But if you sell food, organics, and supplies on the open market it will keep the colony alive for as long as you need for the exploit to work. The down side to this is the tariffs eating into your profits so you need to move lots and lots of goods on the open market (moving lots of organs on the BL helps with that) to keep it stable. Best way to keep your profits high is to wait until the colony stability hits zero on each delivery, so the more you put on the open market the longer it stays stable and you can travel to farther systems to pick up more goods and help increase your standing with the other factions. BTW dont bother with moving drugs in the tutorial system, if the colony is stable then they never run out, hurting your wallet.
P.S. I did buy my own key a week after I used Sseth's but havent been able to use my key even after uninstalling and reinstalling the game.