$30,000 Millionaire said:
We could spend hours debating the merits and dangers of options. They are not for the unskilled. My concern for many on this board is that they only understand long calls and long puts, which work in a trending market. In a neutral market, you have to understand collars, iron condors, calendars, butterflies, back ratios, etc.
All of that said, it's pretty hard to lose selling covered calls (you may give up upside), and it's pretty hard to lose selling puts in a stock you are willing to buy anyway at current prices.
I've realized I only have time to do the 2nd paragraph this year and it's worked well. I'm sure it's limited my upside (also going net free has capped some upside), but it's kept me solidly green both in terms of realized gains and overall account value. It was higher when IWM was rocking and I'm obviously hurting on some of the stocks that are regularly talked about, but it helps bring in $$ when I'm otherwise red. Good strategy for those of us inundated with real work now