Learning how to answer that question will be critical to your success.

You have some general ideas of where you want to go. It seems like it would make sense to now explore the websites for the airlines who can get you there.

For most people based in the USA, it makes sense to earn miles in US-based programs. Generally, this means looking at American, United, and Delta. In each program, you can use your miles to fly on that airline and any other airline in their airline alliance.

So have a look at the AA, UA, and DL websites. They each have award charts that tell you how many miles to reach particular destinations.

Run some searches for dates that would be typical to get a sense for what the availability looks like.

Go to each airline's forum here on FT. Most have newbie and award booking "sticky" threads.

Once you figure out how many miles you need for your typical trips, you can compare to the cash price you'd pay to make the trip. For example, if it would take 60000 miles and you would pay $600 cash for it, then a mile from that airline would be worth 1 cent to you.

Would be great if you spent a few hours doing that research and reported back here with more questions. (And "show your work", as well, so folks can point out any missteps.)