I get super envious at different things at different times in my life... It's always tied to a feeling of insecurity. I am envious of the big things - houses. We live (with family, for free) in an incredibly high income area, actually I think it was measured to have the highest per capita income of anywhere in the country in the last couple years. McMansions don't even cut it here, it's like, Saudi prince palaces and stuff. Totally ridiculous. But then we pass a sweet little bungalow or rancher from the 1940s and I'm like, surely, something like that is in reach! But alas, they are still 1 million+. Then I go down the (very dangerous road) of "oh if only we'd put off kids or if I leave them and go to work" we could maybe, someday, after busting our butts, own a home. But even then it seems unattainable, not least of all because that's not truly what we want from life, at all.
This is not to mention the occasional pangs I get when I watch the endless string of Lexus SUVs parked around here. Saw a Maserati the other day. In this area, that's NBD. It's one thing to say, haha, you have a 400/mo car payment and we don't, it's another to think, wow, we literally couldn't afford to make those payments, even if we wanted to.
I know my reaction should be, oh those people probably have tons of debt and will have to work forever. But honestly, I just don't believe that. The incomes around here are so high, these people probably max out their 401Ks without even noticing it. So, yeah, envy is rampant.
My imagined solution is to move to a lower COL area and get away from the super high earners, so hopefully that will happen someday. If only my husband was less of a diligent worker and more of a go-getter (ah, another thing I'm envious of) lol.