This!
I wrote that minning reply because of what you told us up at the top. It is catered to what you said you have.
My personal mining rig is something else. My combat rig has been many things, but I am not a PvP player, nor "Wealthy", so my answer is going to be different than people with those qualifiers.
As to Bounty Hunting, it depends on whether you want to do all your own killing, or have the local Security engage. You can farm credits in a Low RES by getting a couple of hits in on anything that is wanted ONCE YOU SCAN IT and see the Wanted for yourself.
Is it as effective at credit generation as a cargo hold full of Platinum? No, but it is more entertaining for most people. It is also, once you are used to it, less dangerous because you can manage the Aggro. There is no one linear progression path in Elite, although difficulty scales with your Ranks. Ranks are only Very Loosely equivalent to Levels.
Figure out what you want to get out of the game. If that leaves you wondering how to achieve it, there are vast numbers of people (yes, me included) who will give advice on how to accomplish whatever it is. Cherry pick our "wisdom", come up with something that works for YOU, and, above all, play for enjoyment.