I've been renting out my stocks. This book made me consider rent-to-own.

This week I spent an hour with a reader who found my writing through a friend. Anup spent 20+ years in the federal and big tech. He retired last year and his monthly income comes from the same strategy I use: getting paid for promising to buy quality stocks at a discount.

But his growth money runs on something I'd been ignoring.

Renting vs rent-to-own

My usual strategy is like being a landlord of my own cash: my capital sits ready, and I collect "rent" (option income) every month for being willing to buy good stocks cheaper. It produces income today, but it isn't designed to multiply wealth.

What Anup does on top of that is closer to rent-to-own — using long-dated stock options (LEAPS) that don't expire in weeks, but in one to two years.

Here's the case study we priced together on the call, in plain numbers:

• Google traded at $342 that morning (it had just dipped).
• A contract giving you the right to buy Google at $220 any time until December 2027 cost about $147 per share.
• So instead of paying $342 to own the stock, you pay $147 — less than half the cash — and you control the same upside for the next 17 months.

Your break-even is simple: $220 + $147 = $367. If Google is above $367 by December 2027, you profit — and because you only put up $147 instead of $342, every dollar of gain is roughly 2.3x more powerful than owning the share outright.

And if you're catastrophically wrong? The most you can ever lose is the $147 you paid. That's the whole bill. Known in advance.

The catch (there's always a catch)

Compare the numbers again: the stock costs $342, your break-even is $367. That $25 gap is what you're paying for time — 17 months of runway for the stock to recover and grow.

That gap is the whole game. Pay a small gap on a quality stock that's temporarily beaten down, and time is on your side. Pay a big gap on a hyped stock, and you've just bought expensive hope with an expiry date.

Why this pairs so well with the income strategy

Remember the two engines: an income engine (monthly cash) and a growth engine (long-term compounding).

My growth engine has always been plain buy-and-hold. What Anup showed me is that LEAPS can be a turbocharged corner of the growth engine: same quality companies, same long-term thinking, but less cash tied up and strictly capped downside. He holds them for a year or more — this is patient money, not a trading rush.

Full honesty

I have not placed a LEAPS trade yet. I’m studying the numbers and pressure-testing the idea. This is me learning in public — which is exactly what I tell my students to do: understand it, size it small, then trust it.

If you are keen to see how this strategy turns out, follow along my journey.

Not financial advice. Options involve risk, and long-dated options can expire worthless — never spend money on them you can't afford to lose.