We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jesse Viljanen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jesse, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Empower individuals—especially those starting from modest means—to achieve financial freedom by teaching and modeling disciplined saving, dividend-focused investing, and smart portfolio growth.

I started Osinkoinsinööri because I know what it feels like to struggle financially. I’ve stood in food bank lines with my family. I’ve lived with the stress of not knowing how our family would make ends meet. That experience shaped me — but it didn’t define me.

Through disciplined saving, a long-term mindset, and consistent investing in high-quality dividend stocks, I’ve been able to turn things around. Not because I got lucky or hit some startup jackpot — but because I treated wealth-building like an engineering challenge: one step at a time, methodical, repeatable, and based on principles that work.

This blog exists to show that financial freedom is possible — even if you’re starting from zero. Especially if you’re starting from zero.

Here’s why this mission matters to me: 1) I want to give hope to people who feel stuck. If I could build wealth from a tough starting point, others can too.; 2) I believe in long-term thinking in a world addicted to shortcuts. Real freedom is built slowly, and that’s okay.; 3) I think we need to talk more openly about money — especially in Finland, where financial independence is often a quiet dream instead of an open goal.; 4) And above all, I want to help engineer a community of people who are taking control of their financial future, just like I did.

I’m not here to sell you a dream. I’m here to share the tools, mindset, and strategies that helped me build mine — so you can build yours too.

Jesse, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi, I’m Jesse Viljanen — the voice behind Osinkoinsinööri (“The Dividend Engineer”).

If you haven’t heard of me before, I’m a Finnish engineer by training and a dividend investor by obsession. But more importantly, I’m someone who knows what it’s like to grow up without money — to worry about basic needs, to stand in food bank lines, and to feel like financial security is something only “other people” get to experience.

Osinkoinsinööri started as a personal blog, but it’s become something more: a practical, honest guide to building financial independence through consistent saving, long-term investing, and dividend income — especially for people who are starting from scratch.

I got into investing not through finance degrees or fancy bank jobs, but through necessity. I needed a way out. I started reading, learning, and tracking every cent. I treated my personal finances like an engineering challenge: optimize, improve, and let compounding do the heavy lifting over time.

Eventually, I started writing about it — first just to organize my thoughts, then to help others avoid the same mistakes I made. I realized that people like me were hungry for clear, BS-free content on how to build real wealth slowly.

Right now, Osinkoinsinööri is primarily a content-driven platform. I share:

– Deep-dive blog posts on dividend investing, portfolio strategy, and financial independence
– Transparent updates on my own journey, including real numbers and honest reflections
– Tools, insights, and frameworks for people who want to take control of their money without hype or gimmicks
– Occasional commentary on the Finnish investment landscape, tax changes, and economic policy
– Community and conversation — because financial independence doesn’t have to be a lonely pursuit

In the future, I may expand into books, tools, or digital courses — but only if they add real value.

What makes Osinkoinsinööri different is that it’s real. I’ve lived through poverty and clawed my way out — not by luck, but by learning and executing the basics consistently. I don’t pitch products. I don’t sell dreams. I document reality. I also bring an engineer’s mindset: everything is based on logic, data, and long-term thinking. I’m not trying to beat the market. I’m trying to build a system that works — and help others do the same.

I’m proud that people trust me with their time, attention, and even sometimes their financial decisions. I’m proud that Osinkoinsinööri has helped regular people — not just finance nerds — start investing, start saving, and start believing that they can build a better future. And I’m proud that I didn’t let where I started dictate where I’d end up.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The driving mission behind Osinkoinsinööri is to show that financial freedom is possible even if you start with nothing. I want to prove — through my own journey and my writing — that you don’t need wealth, connections, or a perfect career to build a stable and eventually prosperous financial life. You just need a system, discipline, and time.

My goal is to make long-term investing, saving, and personal finance feel approachable — especially for people who never felt like “finance people” to begin with. Engineers, students, working-class people, anyone who wants to escape survival mode and start building something real.

What drives me creatively is the belief that every person who takes control of their finances changes not just their own future, but the legacy they leave behind. That’s what I’m trying to contribute to: one article, one mindset shift, one honest conversation at a time.

So yes — I’m on a mission. Not just to build my own portfolio, but to help others build the life they didn’t think they could afford.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When you grow up poor, like I did, you don’t just have to learn how to build wealth — you have to unlearn almost everything you thought you knew about money.

For me, it wasn’t just one lesson. It was an entire operating system I had to rewrite. I had to unlearn the survival mindset that says, “Spend it while you have it, because you might not tomorrow.” I had to unlearn the idea that money is meant to be used, not grown. That owning things is for rich people. That saving is only for emergencies — not a tool for freedom.

Growing up, I never saw asset accumulation. I never heard about investing. No one talked about dividends, or compounding, or passive income. What I saw was stress, debt, and trying to make it to the end of the month. That kind of environment shapes you. It teaches you to think short-term, to chase immediate comfort, and to fear loss more than you seek growth.

So when I started turning my financial life around, I had to go through a process of systematic unlearning:
– Unlearning emotional spending habits rooted in scarcity
– Unlearning the belief that working harder is the only path to more money
– Unlearning that money is just for surviving — and embracing the idea that money can work for you

That’s the hardest part, honestly. Not learning how to invest — you can read books for that. The hard part is rewiring how you see money, risk, time, and yourself.

Osinkoinsinööri was born out of that transformation. It’s not just about numbers. It’s about helping others who come from similar backgrounds shift their mindset from survival to ownership, from reacting to planning, from consumer to investor.

And that shift? That’s the real wealth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.osinkoinsinoori.fi/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/osinkoinsinoori
• Twitter: https://x.com/ViljanenJesse

Image Credits

All images are owned by me