depressed about money today

I'm dwelling on how I am not where I want to be because of my debt. I have such modest goals, and haven't even attained them. I wish I could think of a way to make more money. Basically, I want to be making $500 more a month just to be making my modest goal for an IRA, and modest savings goal. After that, though, I'd still be tight on the budget. I looked at a website where this guy has a financial manifesto, his name is Marshall Brain. His cautionary tale case fits my situation to a tee. I have just enough in my budget for basics, but no wiggle room. And extra stuff comes up all the time. But I still blow it regularly, wasting money in a time when there just isn't extra for anything. Vicious, vicious cycle. I need to relax and turn my attention elsewhere. I am ok. Thank god I have a roof over my head, basics covered, and food. How can I complain? Really! Many, many of my friends have less money and more struggle for the basics.

I saw a segment of a movie, one of those monologues by Spaulding Gray, in which he says, "What would it be like to know poor people?" It was strange. I guess a lot of people stick among their own, rich or poor or middle. But in my life, there are literally a few billionaires, some millionaires, plenty in my range, many with a lot smaller salaries, people on Social Security and a handful of homeless with no income, even some prisoners. All of these people I have spent the day with on many occasions, been in their living space, eaten with them. It's funny, some of my wealthier friends buy me lunch, and I buy lunch for some of my poorer friends. I, of all people, should be pretty zen about money, and know it isn't the key to happiness. A close friend of mine is a prisoner. When I visit him, he shows up in the same, faded yellow jumper, year after year. In his pocket, he carries some early seventies-dated glasses wrapped in toilet paper. That is grounding! The guy literally has nothing. What am I complaining about?