An extremely lucrative job requires no advanced education and just five months of work per year. Ryan Jake Perkins, CFP, isn’t interested.

Wait. Let’s dig deeper.

In fact, the seven-year MDRT member already spent five years working in gold mining, the main industry in his Northern Ontario, Canada community and one of North America’s most dangerous jobs. More than a decade later, he still remembers his first day 5,000 feet underground and the smell of ammonia, water, mud and oil hitting his nose, enough to make some pass out. When he was down in the mines, Perkins let it be known that he wanted to move up to a leadership role one day.

Now, instead of working as a miner, he is serving his former colleagues, many of whom struggle with payments on ATVs, snowmobiles and other vehicles purchased for entertainment.

“Miners make big money, and they don’t love saving it,” said Perkins, who works with 500 families in a firm that will expand by the end of the year to handle 2,800 clients in total. “It can be a challenge to get them on a plan that works so they’re not living above their means.”

Digging deeper

For example: Three years ago, Perkins sat down with a referral who was overspending not just on an ATV and snowmobiles but — get ready — a truck to pull them, a trailer for each vehicle, a camper, a Jet Ski, and all the fuel and maintenance that goes with those toys. Perkins started by asking why the client needed all of this, and if he wanted to continue purchasing at this rate.

The client responded that he had been trying to keep up with his friends and didn’t understand why he was making so much money but always felt like he had none. With an aggressive debt repayment plan, Perkins helped the client free up $500/month in cash flow and recently helped him start a $2,500/month savings plan.

“In other words, we went from most of his cash going out in payments to saving $3,000 a month,” Perkins said.

There isn’t a lot of money to be made on these clients at first, Perkins said, but decades down the road, they can be million-dollar clients due to accumulating investments, escalating savings plans and converting term coverage to whole life.

However, that was with an agreeable client. It’s not always so easy. Once, a miner reached out to Perkins for help managing his pension. Perkins provides that assistance for free with his planning service. Even after doing that, the prospect declined the recommendations related to his spending. He just wanted pension help. “I live for today, not for tomorrow,” he said, seemingly unconcerned with mismanaged spending on everything from expensive vehicles to morning coffee.

“If we can’t execute a plan properly,” Perkins replied, “we can’t help.”

To be “professionally persistent,” Perkins might reiterate the client’s words back to them — that they’d mentioned being a family person, and if they care about their family, the advisor’s recommendations will help protect them. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes people just need time. Like the referral who wasn’t ready to handle his debt initially but called Perkins two years later after not only resolving his debt but accumulating $30,000 in savings in the bank. Since working with Perkins, the client has saved another $50,000.

But wait: How does Perkins deal with the element of danger for these miners?

Looking up

Thanks to new legislation and required safety measures like screens that keep rocks from falling on miners (Perkins recalled an old friend who died eight years ago after a large boulder fell on his neck), the occupation is safer now than it used to be. But many insurance companies don’t know that. So, Perkins helps clients, and thereby differentiates his services, with a cover letter he uses to prevent clients from being rated for life or critical illness insurance based on their employment.

The letter details the work involved in mining, distinguishes between specific styles of mining, and explains the safety precautions that have been put in place for an area whose mines produce nearly 2 million ounces of gold per year.

“The insurance companies think mining is like Wile E. Coyote and blowing stuff up all the time,” Perkins said. “I make sure they understand that being a miner is safer than they think.”

Perkins added that miners are uninsurable for disability policies while geologists, engineers and planners would be more coverable.

Of course, in a field where people sometimes quit because they can’t overcome fears about everything that could go wrong (flood, fire, cave-ins, etc.), and others retire early because their body no longer can do the physical labor, advisors also can provide support for job transitions. Perhaps an entry-level miner will rise to a trainer, then a shift boss, then a safety coordinator. Or do less laborious jobs that involve driving vehicles instead of the physical act of mining.

Meanwhile, if there’s anything Perkins doesn’t know about, like changes to the miners’ pension or stock plan, he can always ask his friends, his brother or his dad. His grandfather and his uncles also were miners.

“Most miners are very prideful and enjoy talking about what they do,” he said.

For younger clients, Perkins will share his personal mining experience to relate to them right away. For older miners who don’t see a few years of experience as significant, Perkins knows it’s usually best to leave it out.

“Coming from a family of miners,” he said, “I know that if you didn’t actually spend your life in mining, my dad, who has 40 years as a high-profile miner, is going to let you know that you’re not the real thing.”