Re: How do you give advice....?
I totally agree with Mirch brother. Besides that, a lot of times our beloved ones want us to only listen to them. So it is not useless to even lend an ear and show sympathy. ( I really appreciate your sensitivity towards minor things for comforting him, MashaAllah)
In such situations try to find a different dimension to the problem which he might not have thought of. Mostly the best solutions comes to my mind when after listening to a problem, I imagine what would have the Prophet (saw) have advised me if I had placed the same question infront of him. The answer usually comes in context to a hadith which I might have read / heard some time ago.
But if the problem is something technical or any matter related to business or the field your husbands works in and you have not much idea / knowledge about the matter, then the best thing to do is what you already mentioned in your post.