They are in their 50s, and her career is going well - but his business is getting bought out, and he will be getting a pink slip. He has a side hustle hobby that he has been doing, a lot of times for free for various non-profits that he has agency with, and now he is trying to tap all that goodwill from those free jobs to boost up into getting paid gigs. However, his wife wants to see him "pound the pavement" and "get a real job", but I have a hunch that the only "real job" he could get is something like working as an auto-parts clerk, which pays sheet.
I think this a problem that a lot of older married men face - that if the wife is working, she'll be damned if she is going to be the one bringing home the bacon!