It could be stuff. It could be a relationship. Anything.
What do you have that others tell you that they wish they had?
Mine are quite minor: a certain blouse, a particular watch, and some of my Skechers.A wife who loves sports. I’m not a sports fan and have been told more than a few times by various people that she’s being wasted on me. 
I am 6’1" which is a pretty nice height for a male. I think height really does help males in life. I also have nice hair that has to be cut with thinning shears every other time I get it cut. I am less than two hours away from being 34 and I see lots of guys younger around that have the various patterns of baldness. That isn’t the worst thing in the world but I would bet they would trade hair with me in a second. My circa 1760 house set on 2 1/2 acres in the Boston area is the envy of many because it wouldn’t seem that we could afford such a thing given the insane housing prices in this area for much lesser houses. That was done by buying a house and property that were largely uninhabitable and then literally investing blood, sweat, and tears plus some injuries over six years to make it what it is and serious work goes on through nights and weekends through this day. Many people like the result but they wouldn’t be cut out for the process but that applies to lots of things.
My new cellphone. A gift to myself paid for by my first bonus in my new position.
My fairly uncomplicated life. I’ve worked and juggled things to the point that while I work 50ish hours a week, the rest of the time I do pretty much whatever I want.
My people skills at work. I’m really really good at getting my associates to work well together, which is not something that many of my colleagues can manage.
Not much else – I’m not worthy of envy, really.
A passing university average. At least, I imagine people envy it.
I’m told that my husband’s ex envies everything I have, including our sons. (I quote, second-hand: “I did this three freaking times, and only got girls. She pops out a boy the first try.” She said that to one of their daughters, by the way, who told me. Charming.)
She envies any relationship I might try to have with my mother-in-law. She envies our house, cars, clothes, babies, you name it. She’s starting to frighten me. Twelve more months and I don’t have to deal with her anymore.
Sane parents, good looks, a fair grasp of the English language, and an almost painless Ph.D. Oh, and no debt, except my mortgage.
My leopard-skin pantaloons.
Curly hair. :dubious: Oh, yeah, curly hair like on TV? Sure. You realize that probably took 4 stylists, a half-dozen styling tools, a gallon each of various hair products, and an exorcism to get that hair to behave, right?
Sorry, I’m going to be all negative for once:
Being able to play the piano fairly well is the most-often quoted talent I have that people envy. I get fed up with hearing “oh, I wish I could play the piano”, and have to bite my tongue to avoid saying “well, how often did you practice?” It’s not as if you can suddenly wake up one morning and BANG!!! sit down at the piano. No, it takes a lot of work, and while you were going out with girls in your teens, I was copying Oscar Peterson licks and trying to get them right, so don’t patronise me, OK? (Although innate ability does have a role in this.)
Another one that gets me is “how come you know so much about things?”. Or “I wish I had your general knowledge!”. That sort of thing. I’m no genius, and my education was fairly mundane (my general knowledge is probably average on the SDMB scale) … but I’ve read lots of books about lots of stuff while you were watching TV, yeah? I’m just curious and fascinated by things for their own sake; you’re not.
I used to get both of those a lot from my TV-addicted ex-wife; my responses were mostly left unsaid.
As for worldly goods, nothing much. I’ve never been wealthy enough to afford anything unusually enviable, other than the lovely old house ex-wife and I lived in.
ETA: no, my ex-wife didn’t go out with girls in her teens. That was more of a generic response. :dubious:
As one of my co-workers said to me;
“You’re the guy who says what needs to be said, when it needs to be said.”
I have several things that people envy:
- a trouble-free marriage to a very lovely woman, and an uncompilcated life to go with it.
- a great, rather high-profile job in a highly specialized field; the kind where when people find out what I do, they say “Really?! Wow!” It’s just my job, but it’s not ordinary.
- a very large collection of music, with a total of somewhere approaching 80,000 individual songs at my disposal. (I’m not making that up! I just did the math, figuring in duplications.)
- enough musical instruments to be my own band.
My health/physiology. I almost never get sick (I can remember the dates of individual colds because they happen so rarely), I don’t catch other people’s colds/flus, I’ve run a high mileage every week (for the last ten years) without good shoes, stretching, etc., I can eat whatever I want and not gain weight, no allergies…
I’ve also had people tell me they envy my skin - but honestly, I don’t see it. Perhaps they should envy the blemish coverup stuff.
On the other hand, if anyone would like to trade feet, I’ve got a pair that would be great for swimming…
My fabulous shoe collection! Some of my friends have expressed envy that I can afford really nice shoes but they always seem to overlook that I drive a 19-year old car and don’t spend much money partying.
Some people mention my red hair but I find it difficult to be proud of something I have no responsibility for.
Apparently I have a nice ass.
My awesome collection of tasteful Hawaiian shirts.
A nice singing voice.
I hope I am not envied at all, I don’t want nazar. But I just got complimented on my long hair and my diamond rings today so I’ll say those two for now. And where I live is the most consistant envious remark made by friends/collegues/others. They all want to retire here or visit. But I have an amazing husband that I love and thats all that matters and I feel very blessed by God.
A husband in law school. Most of my peers seem to think that this means I’m going to be fantastically wealthy and will never want to or have to do anything myself. Misplaced envy would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.
Everyone seems to like my hair, too. I’m fond of it myself most times.
Ummm…a Nintendo Wii?