Options decay though. They can be a very good way to increase your leverage and can be awesome to increase your exposure especially if you get into more complicated strategies, but for pure long term index investing on margin for leverage is better.
The interest rates are very low right now and the risk, while still obviously higher than non leveraged investing, is much lower than with options. That's only true if you invest in the main (slower moving) indexes though, being leveraged on individual stocks can be much more risky.
Writing OTM calls on index ETFs you own can be a good way to increase your return with almost no risk though (expect the risk of limiting your upside).
The interest rates are very low right now and the risk, while still obviously higher than non leveraged investing, is much lower than with options. That's only true if you invest in the main (slower moving) indexes though, being leveraged on individual stocks can be much more risky.
Writing OTM calls on index ETFs you own can be a good way to increase your return with almost no risk though (expect the risk of limiting your upside).