The written English on display here is atrocious - “she shared that a substantial portion of her husband’s $4,000 income is allocated to rent”.
So the biggest problem is being idiotic enough to allocate $4,000 out of a $9,000 income on just rent! Rent is possibly the worst thing one has to pay, besides income tax. Money that’s paid and will never be seen again.
If $4,000 was spent to service a housing loan, at least there’s still the house ownership at the end of it.
The quick easy solution is to downgrade from a condo rental to a HDB rental.