you need to earn enough credits to meet your next level target amount in order to progress... try doing missions or trading/finding the best route etc...
i am a lvl 33 (and a half... lol)up by your nav map it will tell you your next target amount if you click the small man icon...(next to the circled i)

hope i helped...

- saw -

my other signature is a ferrari

i have.
it was at the next level before i finished the story.

will i need to lose money so it goes over next level again a bug perhaps.

After the story has completed, you are now told how much MORE you need to earn to get to the next level.

Keep working at it. It will rise. It has taken me 2 weeks to get to level 28.

So I am at level 22 and rising steadily. The red hessians are a pain in the arse for me, but I am trading in rheinland in h-fuel right now. Bought a humpback freighter and am slowly loading it up with weapons.
Here's the question though. The story does continue right? Right now its saying I have a mission to complete before my next level, but none in my log. It did it before and just switched to a monetary value when I bought and sold some stuff.
If the story does continue, at what level does it kick back in?

It doesn't. After the old Dyson Sphere, that's it. The "Level up Requirement: Mission" is a bug. Land, buy/sell, take off and it usually fixes itself. One of the guys on here said that the server patch (???) can cause this too. Have you downloaded that?

If it wasn't for the inky blackness of the night you wouldn't appreciate the brilliance of the stars...

You can also advance levels by destroying other ships, your net worth goes up a bit with every group of ships you destroy.

Got it guys thx
am up to level 29 now

Caesar, destroying ships does not increase your net worth - what does increase it is the collected loot.

Unfortunately, weapon loot drops are not lucrative unless you are rich already: you have to be almost level 30 before class 7 weapons & ammo start dropping reliably, for class 8 kit it seems to be around level 32 and class 9 kit requires level 34 or higher. So, if you fight enemies that carry class 6 kit or higher while your rank is in the early twenties or lower then you get only peanut drops - Drone mines, thrusters, nanos/batts, stuff like that. Pretty frustrating.

The only way to get rich quickly by fighting is to take high-paying missions but in SP mode there are very few places that offer them. My favourite place is Omega-41 because there you can fly missions up to $100k in an inexpensive class 6/7 ship, against criminals.