In this episode of Rush to Reason, John Rush dives deep into the world of travel savings, revealing strategies to make your spring and summer vacations more affordable. By tackling each step of the journey, from mapping car trips to leveraging airline reward programs, John provides practical tips that can help listeners save substantial money. Discover how small changes, like strategically planning your fuel stops or utilizing credit card points, can lead to significant savings. Listeners will gain insights into avoiding typical travel pitfalls and employing proven tactics for affordable planning. With insights into maximizing loyalty rewards and finding
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This is Rush to Reason.
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With your host, John Rush.
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It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush.
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All right, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, hour number two. Now, I had a proposed guest that we could never get put together for this particular hour on this particular topic, and I thought, well… I don’t write travel columns, and I don’t do things in that space, but I travel plenty, and I feel like I’m a pretty veteran individual along those lines, and I understand how to use a lot of the discount programs and things that are out there, and I feel well-equipped enough to talk about spring break slash summer travel saving tips. Again, I had a guest that was lined up for this particular segment that I never could get completely put together, so I’ll do it myself. So here we go. Maybe get your pen and paper out. Now, really quick, too. I’ve had several of you asking about our podcasts and recordings and different things on our website, and we had a few snafus here of late at the station here. About the last, oh, I don’t know, four or five weeks, we did a huge, huge software change here at the station, which changed a few things around on our end, and we had to kind of remake some things, I guess you could say, do some things differently than we had been doing in the past. But on top of that, producer Ann had some health issues that sort of set her back. So we kind of had the perfect storm. We had some health issues with Ann. Ann also had some things happening here at the station. So things got a little bit out of whack on our past shows and so on. But we’re catching up. Never fear. We will get all those caught up on the website and so on. So for some of you that may be looking for something specific, keep looking. We will keep those updated or keep updating those on a daily slash weekly basis. So in this particular case, this will also be up in the not-too-distant future, and you can have these tips as well. So I’m going to break this up into car, into air. And then how to find great deals. And also, if I get time here, how to pack. I know that sounds kind of unique, but bear with me. So first off, with the car. How do you save money on a trip in the car? First of all, map out your route. And I learned this a long, long time ago from my father-in-law that I had at that time. And I will tell you that mapping out the route… And figuring out where the best places to buy fuel are will not only make the trip go a lot better, but will save you money. And what I mean by that is, no, you just don’t pull over when you’re low and then fill up. In some cases, they have strategized where these particular stations are in regards to interstates. And you will find that typically, not always, but typically those stations that are closest to the interstate will also charge the most money for fuel. So by mapping out where you’re going and can you take the bypass through town, which might only take you an extra five minutes or so, can you find a station in town that, by the way, the locals are actually mostly buying fuel at and maybe save anywhere from $0.10 to $0.50 a gallon. And I’m not exaggerating when I say $0.50. You go out by the interstate, and it’s one price. You go into town, and it’s literally 50 cents different. And I’m not joking. So it happens even around here. You go I-70, go up to the mountains, go to some of the ski areas and so on. You will see prices vary a dollar a gallon for the most part, and I’m not exaggerating. So do your mapping out on where you’re going to be going and where those stations are that you’re going to be filling up at. By the way, do the same thing in regards to where you eat. What kind of places to eat do they have along the way? Maybe you want to pack a cooler instead of actually eating out. Number one, you’ll save money on not eating out. Number two, you’ll be healthier along the way. And then on top of that, what hotels? If you’re traveling by car and you might have to have an overnight stay, depending upon how far you’re driving. Where is that motel, hotel? Have you got that reservation made? Don’t just plan on showing up because in some cases it may be completely full. Have these things mapped out ahead of time. And by the way, I’ll get into this a little bit later, but if you’ve got the right rewards program that you belong to, some of these hotels you can make reservations at and have literally up to a few hours before you stay free cancellation. So let’s say you decide you want to drive further and there’s a different hotel on down the road that you can get a reservation at, you can change. So something else to think about when it comes to that end of things. Andy just asked me, how do you research prices in those towns? GasBuddy. GasBuddy. It’s an app or you can go online. So GasBuddy will tell you where those prices are along your route. And a lot of that with the gas prices is done exactly like some of the driving helps like Waze, where you’re getting instant updates from people that also have Waze that are traveling the roadway. They will actually report in where those particular accidents and things are. GasBuddy does the same thing with people reporting in certain stations and what is that price at that particular point in time. Because, as you know, that can change daily. So, yeah, that’s how those particular apps work, including even the GasBuddy app itself. It does exactly the same thing. So you can map out a route and know exactly what some of those station prices are going to be for the different types of fuel. Everything from standard grade, mid-grade, premium, diesel, and so on. So that’s a way to do it. So thank you, Andy, for asking that. GasBuddy, and it’s an app or they have a website as well. But GasBuddy is the actual app that I use at times to figure out where do you want to go buy fuel at a different part of the country that you may be. And by the way, if you’re traveling in a rental car, you can do the exact same thing. For example, we’re going to shift over to the air, so I might as well talk about this. If you rent a car, you want to do this same thing because everything by the rental car place – will have the highest prices for fuel. If you can fill up several miles away from the rental car place, then do that. Don’t fill up around the airport. It’s always the most expensive. Also, really quick on rental cars. This isn’t in my notes, but on rental cars, never buy the full tank up front. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever buy the full tank up front. And here’s why. They are charging you for a full tank, and you’ll never bring that car back empty. I don’t care how low you want to try to get that. I don’t care if the light’s on. You’re still leaving two, three gallons, sometimes four gallons left in the tank. You’re getting charged for that, and you didn’t use it. So sorry, rental car companies, but never, ever, ever buy the full tank on the front side. I don’t care how convenient you think that is. Now, if you want to pay for that convenience and you’re okay with paying the extra money, then be my guest. But you’re getting shortchanged when you do that. I don’t care what the price on the wall is that they’re charging on a per-gallon basis. Trust me, you can always go match or beat that price. And by the way, like I said a moment ago, you’re never going to use everything that’s in the tank in that car that you just bought a full tank for so never ever pay on the front side for fuel at the rental car place so if you’re shot if you’re going to travel by air the next thing is make sure that you either shop early for airfare for the trip that you’ve got coming up or late John from Cheyenne knows exactly what I’m talking about. You say late? Well, yeah. If you’re making last-minute reservations, sometimes you might find even a few days before the trip, look and see if the prices have changed. And depending upon what your ticket was, you might be able to cancel and rebook and save money. Reason for that is they want to fill the plane up. And there are going to be hot times of the year where, you know, hotter times as far as the ticket prices go, not the temperature outside. All of your major holidays are going to be higher priced. Every major holiday. Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, President’s Day week, blah, blah, blah. All of those have a higher price. If you can shift your trip outside of those time frames, you’ll also save money. That’s another way to save money on airfare. Shop, look. Next, remember that… Part of that, as I said a moment ago, part of the cost of flying is also ground transportation. So when you arrive there, are you getting a free car from relatives? Are they picking you up and delivering you where you need to go? Are you Ubering? Are you renting? What are you doing? Because a lot of people think, well, I can fly cheaper than I can drive. Well, that might be true. But once you’re there, what are you doing? Because that cost is also there that you have to counter. And a lot of times people don’t factor that in. They get someplace realizing that, oh, yeah, I saved money by not buying gas and not having wear and tear on my car, but now I need to go from A to B. And maybe walking isn’t conducive. You may end up someplace where walking is just fine and you never need to have any kind of transportation. So be it. But make sure you’re looking on the front side of all of this to know exactly how that works. And then lastly, where are you staying? Same thing that applies to driving applies to flying. Where are you going to be? How are you going to get there? How are you going to maneuver around? On and on we go. Now, when I come back after the break, I’ll talk about how do you find some of these great deals. It can be on credit card or other types of programs that are out there. I’ll cover that here in just one moment. Veteran Windows and Doors is next, by the Always a great deal at Veteran Windows and Doors. Dave Bancroft. Give him a call today. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 05 :
All right, we are back talking about how to save money, whether it’s by air or by driving, when it comes to some of the travel you may do for spring break and or summer travel as well. Somebody texted this in. By the way, great reminder. Thank you. Also, when it comes to air flights, you know, air tickets, early and late flights are typically the cheapest. And when I say early, I mean in some cases the flight may be leaving at 5 or 6 a.m. and at night it might be a 10 o’clock at night flight. So you can usually look and see. You know how that works. If you ever booked a flight, you can look. And keep this in mind, too. When you’re looking at flights, you can check all the third-party sites or the airlines themselves. I, well, mainly because of lots of other factors, but… I like going to the airline sites themselves. Not that you can’t do some of the price lines and so on and save money there, but typically I find I can actually do as well on the airline site as I can booking it any other way. Now, how do you save money on that end of things? Now, this is a long discussion. I’ll make a quick note of it, kind of a 10,000-foot view. If you’ve got specific questions, you can text me, and I can maybe walk you through this a little bit better one-on-one. But credit card reward programs. And there is many. Pick your poison. What I mean by that is figure out what you, you know, what airline would you use the most or what program would you use the most? And I am one that says don’t. Don’t dabble around. In other words, some people will use this card and somebody, you know, you might use that card and maybe use another card. I am one to say, if at all possible, and you’ve got the means to do so, use one or two cards, but with the same rewards program number. So say, for example, some of you that are self-employed. You might have a business card and a personal card, which I would always advise, and I advise my clients to do this. You use the business card for all business purchases, the personal card for all personal purchases, but combined, it’s all under one rewards number, meaning that you’re gathering points on the business side and you’re gathering points on the personal side, and it’s accumulating faster when it comes to your reward points. Now, also remember that the majority of airlines have programs whereby they’ve also partnered up with hotel, rental car, and so on. In some cases, even dining. Look at those sites. Look inside of your own rewards program, not the credit card, but the rewards program to determine do they have a really good deal on hotels, for example. And in some cases, you might be able to use some of your points and cash for the stay or points only or whatever the case might be. Typically with hotels, it’s going to be cash and points. Now, also look at the fact that you can stay and earn points. In some cases, you earn more points at one hotel versus another, depending upon what you’re trying to earn with your points. For example, Southwest, they’ve got what they call companion pass, which means if you get enough points earned, you book a ticket, your companion flies for the taxes only, which in the United States of America is $5.60 each way. How do I know that? Because I have one. So you book a regular ticket, $200 ticket. The companion flies for $5.60, meaning two people are flying on that flight for $200 or $205.60, two people. Break that down, divide that in half. It’s not a bad ticket price when it’s all said and done, but you’ve got to utilize your points and be strategic in how you’re doing that. Now, another way to actually do that is, Again, look at the card that you actually have and what rewards you the most. And a lot of them will have different times of the month, different times of the year. They’ll do three times points, four times points for different things you may be buying anyways. You have to really look at what that is and does it fit into what your budget is and what you’re buying anyways. And if so, then do so. Now, I’m also somebody that I pay for everything on a credit card. Dave Ramsey would hate me. I’m his enemy because I use a credit card for everything. I do not use a debit card. I use a credit card, and I pay for everything on a credit card as much as I possibly can, including in some cases there might be a small fee to use the card. I will do the math. What am I gaining in points versus what’s the fee, and am I going to use the credit card or not? Typically, I will because it typically outweighs the fee. Especially when you talk about getting into some of these bigger bonus programs, like I mentioned with the companion pass, it makes a huge difference. So once again, look at your entire budget, what you spend money on, and how would you make this work? And again, there are lots of different cards for lots of different rewards, depending upon what you do the most. Do you dine out? Do you fly? Do you rent cars? Do you stay at hotels? What is it you like in having rewards? In some cases, just cash back. And if that’s the case, fine. But my point is, utilize those the best you can, and that helps save money on your travel when it’s all said and done. Also, look for discounts that are out there on the Internet that you might be spending money on. And last but not least, join some of the reward program groups that are on social media and and read some of the tactics others might have for getting ahead on earning more points. I actually, even this last year, learned some things along those lines, and they do help. In other words, learn from what others are doing that might help you accumulate more when it’s all said and done, helping you then save money when it comes to vacationing. John, go ahead.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, sorry to call back a second time, but different subject. One of the things that my wife and I have found with her being in the business, we travel a lot, is be loyal to certain hotel chains.
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely, John. Absolutely. That goes back to being not only loyal to the card, but be loyal then to that chain as well.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, if you use the card, they’ll give you double points. You get points for the purchase plus the points for the stay.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
But here’s the thing. You also gain status in that thing. So I’ll give you an example. We were staying. We had to go to a wedding two weeks ago, and the hotel that the wedding was booked through was part of the chain we always use. Okay, this goes backwards. We were flying standby back to the East Coast because we can. So one of the great things was we looked at the flight and Red Eye to Charlotte, which was an overnight flight, was half empty. So we knew we were going to get on. And then the first flight up to Newark was empty. So we didn’t have to worry as much about are we going to get on the flight when there’s 55 empty seats the day before the flight leaves. They’re usually not going to book that. But when we got to the hotel, we got there at 10 o’clock in the morning. And because of my wife’s status at the hotel, the room was ready. They gave us an upgrade to a suite. And then they asked her, do you want a free breakfast? Because it wasn’t a restaurant that included breakfast. Because of your status, we’re going to give you breakfast. You know, stuff like that. Little things like that.
SPEAKER 05 :
They all add up, John.
SPEAKER 10 :
Save you a ton of money.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Here’s the other thing. Have more than one hotel chain. We have discovered on road trips across Wyoming, Montana, places like that, some of the smaller towns don’t have all the chains.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good point. One of the most common chains I’ve found, and the hotels are usually nothing wrong with them, is Best Western.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
They are usually in some of the smaller towns. That’s correct. And here’s the other nice thing. 90% of your Best Westerns are dog-friendly if you’re traveling with your dog.
SPEAKER 04 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s the other thing you always want to remember if you’re traveling with a dog. Is the hotel you’re booking at dog-friendly?
SPEAKER 05 :
Pet-friendly. Are they going to be able to take your cat or your dog?
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. Or are you going to pull up and say, oh, we’re not dog-friendly.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Great point.
SPEAKER 10 :
So check the website. A lot of times when we stay at, like, we’re doing a road trip or a backpack where we’re starting way out in the middle of nowhere so we’ll stay at a close hotel the night before, we’ll make sure it’s dog-friendly. Book through the website because you always get the best price. But then we’ll call the hotel directly and say, hey, we just checked in on the website. Here’s the reservation number. We’re traveling with a dog. And they’ll always say, oh, thanks for letting us know. We’ll make sure you have a dog-friendly room.
SPEAKER 03 :
There you go.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good idea. There’s a hotel in Buffalo, Wyoming that took all their dog-friendly rooms, took out the carpet, and put in LVT, which makes it easier to keep clean.
SPEAKER 05 :
Way nice.
SPEAKER 10 :
Which is nice. The other thing with air travel, I texted you first flight in the morning, last flight at night. The other thing is if you book through a third-party provider and your flight cancels, and you go to the counter and say, hey, they’re going to tell you to contact who you bought your ticket from.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
And a lot of other times, you can go to a third-party provider and say maybe cheapo tickets is $25 cheaper.
SPEAKER 05 :
In the end, it may not be.
SPEAKER 10 :
Say United, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Pick up the phone and call United. You might sit on hold for 10 minutes to speak to somebody in reservations. Usually they pick up reservations first because that’s a sales thing and say, hey, I’m looking online. This fare for this flight is $25 cheaper. Can you match it?
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Great idea.
SPEAKER 10 :
Those reservations agents will probably match it. Now that flight cancels or that flight, yeah, the flight cancels and you’ve got to rebook. You go to the United counter or you call the United line or you go on the United app and you rebook through United. You’re not having to deal with the third party trying to find you a rebook.
SPEAKER 04 :
Great point.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good stuff, John. Hey, John, the last thing is, you know, if you’re doing a road trip, make sure, and this goes to Saturday mornings, Take your car into your mechanic and ask them. Yeah, great idea. And most mechanics will give it the once-over.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
And if it’s your regular mechanic, we’ll be in charge.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. Absolutely, John. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 10 :
And then if they find something, they’ll fix it, and you don’t have to worry about paying. Because, you know, if you get stuck, it’s way more money on the road. And you might be there two nights because they might have to get a part in.
SPEAKER 04 :
Great point.
SPEAKER 10 :
From Cheyenne, and they’re in the middle of—they’re in Worland, Wyoming.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
And it’s going to take a day to get the part there. Little things like that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Great point, John.
SPEAKER 10 :
Have a good day.
SPEAKER 05 :
You too, man. Great point. No, last but not least, before I go to break, packing. And this one I said I would hit on really quickly. I’m sure John would agree with me on this one as well. Pack what you need, not what you think you’re going to need. And what I mean by that is, and yes, I know I’m really weird, but ride out each day. What activities are you going to have? What do you need to wear for said activities? Pack accordingly. Most people bring far more on vacation than they actually need. Remember also that there’s some airlines southwest that will allow you two bags free. Check the bags. Avoid that overhead fight for that bin space that you might have otherwise. Vacation is stressful enough already. No sense in having to worry about is there going to be space for my luggage or not. Just go ahead and check the bags. A little bit of time you’ll spend waiting for those bags is minimal. And by the way, if you’re actually renting a car, here’s a little trick on that. Send somebody in the family. Typically, there’s husband and wife traveling or there’s partners or whatever. Typically, the way that works is whoever’s going to be waiting for the bags, have whoever is going to be the primary driver go ahead and get the car. Once the bags are ready, you’ve typically already got the car. You’re killing two birds with one stone. You then have whoever’s got the car come around, pick you up at curbside. You’re not having to worry about dragging all that luggage onto the shuttle bus or through the rest of the terminal and out to wherever the rental cars are. You save all sorts of time and effort doing it that way. Just have whoever’s got the car, bring it back around, throw the bags in the car, and off you go. Another little travel tip, which, by the way, you won’t even hear most of these people that write these travel blogs say. talk about because, frankly, most of them never traveled with seven kids like I have in the past. So a few little tips when it comes to some of these things. If you’ve got any other questions, please let me know. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. And all of these things, by the way, also, believe it or not, help you when it comes to your future finances. What I mean by that is you might be in an earning stage now, able to actually buy tickets and then add to your points buying tickets, which, by the way, down the road in retirement, you might be able to use at that point in time. So talk to Al on how all those things might work for you specifically. Find Al today at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 09 :
Live and local, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, we are back. My son Richard joining us now. Richard, welcome. Talk to us about NFL Free Agency, which I believe started today.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, it sort of did, right? The NFL, they’re silly because they do a… what’s called like a tampering period so it’s legal to quote-unquote contact of players agents today but then you also see like within the first hour like these must be the fastest agents known to man because deals are coming out and things are being agreed to that you would think would take a little bit more time but really most people know uh the situation is which is it’s Basically, they’ve been talking up to this point in time because there’s really no impermissible contact when it comes to agents, right? You have players that you can’t contact and that sort of a thing. And so some of these players who actually have a – they’re their own agent, but they tend to miss out on some of this stuff. But, yeah, this happened today. Lots of money floating around. The Broncos signed a safety from the Titans – or not the Titans, from the 49ers. He will be – he’ll play on the back end, and he’ll be three – I think he’s like three years, $45 million. He’ll be $15 million a year, which is good work if you can get it in today’s day and age. Right. And so you’ve got lots of other deals going on. You’ve got Aaron Rodgers may end up being the quarterback for the Steelers.
SPEAKER 04 :
I saw that, actually.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Russ may move on to the Giants is the potential quarterback. Justin Fields, who was one of the quarterback Steelers last year, he’s going to be with the Jets and lots of movement. It’s kind of one of the most exciting times of the year.
SPEAKER 03 :
Saw Von Miller got released today as well.
SPEAKER 07 :
He did. He’s sort of a cat-cat. You know, Von, again, some of your listeners are going to laugh. Von’s a little bit older. I think Von’s going to be 36 this year. And so he’s sort of long in the tooth, and he’ll probably latch on with the team, maybe even back with the Bills. For another run at it, I don’t think it’ll be with the Broncos. As much as I would enjoy it, Dad, I really would because I think that that would be a cool thing for him to do. I think he’ll eventually retire a Bronco. It’s just going to be more of one of those ceremonial, one-day contract sort of a thing. Signs back with the Broncos. He’ll probably retire his number. sort of a deal. He’s just a really great player for us, sort of set us up for success in a lot of ways, and I think it’s something that they will reward him with. Just not quite yet, right? They’ve got a little bit – and he probably in his mind has got a little bit more to play for. You’ve got a couple guys retiring. But, yeah, I mean, there’s lots of big moves. Lots of people will say, Dad, that the teams in free agency that sign guys the first day or two, you’re kind of paying A-plus money for B-plus players. Sometimes you get lucky, right? The Eagles did that this year with Saquon Barkley. They signed him to a pretty good contract, and he obviously sort of repaid them in a lot of ways. But, yeah, lots of funny money rolling around.
SPEAKER 05 :
How much of a gamble is that for teams at this time of the year doing that?
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, a lot of times it’s free agency. Well, here’s the thing. A guy – a person – a guy, I should say, he is a free agent for a reason, right? Now, maybe it’s as simple as the team can’t afford to pay him. Maybe a team’s silly enough, like the Giants were last year, right, to not pay Saquon when probably they should have. In some cases, maybe a guy’s hurt. So you always have to think about – or maybe they know this guy’s going to fall off. Maybe a personal thing. I don’t know. But a lot of – you hear this a lot this year, which is – or this time of year – which is the teams that know them the best have chosen not to re-sign them for one reason or another. Now, again, it may be something as simple as maybe the guy’s closer to 26, 27, 28, which, again, some of you are going to say that’s not old. Well, in the NFL, it is old. And so maybe they’ve got a younger guy, 22, 23, or maybe they’ve got a rookie that’s going to step into that guy’s place, so they don’t want to give that guy – a third contract in some cases.
SPEAKER 05 :
Not a lot of Tom Brady’s playing in the league at 40, is there?
SPEAKER 07 :
No, not a lot of Tom Brady’s playing in the league at 40. There’s not a lot of Tom Brady’s available in free agency, even though Brady was a number of years ago. That’s when he went to Tampa. So yeah, there’s a lot that a lot that goes on that, you know, is not, you know, it just all plays into the equation. You know, the draft is coming up a lot. Some teams will, you know, they say they will draft for value and then, you know, they plug and hold with free agency. But other teams will, if they need a guy in a position, they’ll get that guy in free agency. Maybe they’ll overpay and then they’ll do the opposite or they’ll compliment that in the draft. So just, you know, as part of the team building thing, the benefit, and we’ve talked about this a little bit with the Broncos, The benefit of the Broncos is they’ve got a very cash-rich ownership group, which means that the way that the NFL works, and you’re going to be here and bore your listeners with this for a while now, but we won’t, is there’s ways to structure the deals right to where it doesn’t count as much against you this year, even though it might be expensive, right? You know, it may be a, like we just mentioned.
SPEAKER 05 :
And that’s something that maybe it will bore some. It wouldn’t bore me. Give me an example. That one, I’m not sure I really understand what you just said, you know, because I’m not into this like you and Andy and others are. So explain that if you would.
SPEAKER 07 :
So the Broncos safety, right? It’s easy math. They just signed him three years, $45 million. It’s an average of $15 million a year. If that was in the NHL, they automatically take that $15 million, even if the cash payout is different. They take that average annual and that average annual amount, and that goes against your salary cap. The way the NFL does it is there’s something cash versus cap. And so they’ve set up some creative features. So, for example… In that case of $45 million, we’ll take $15 million right off the top. And the reason we’re going to do that is we’re going to pay him a signing bonus, Dad, so he gets cash the minute he signs. He will get that cash right up front. Well, so we remove that $15 million from the 45. That takes it down to 30. Well, 30 divided by 3 is $10 million. $10 million. And in this case, it’s still going to add up to being the same number. You can take that 30 divided by, you have to divide it by three, which is 10. And then you also take the 15 million, which we gave to him in cash as a signing bonus. You divide that by three, that comes out to 5 million. And you can spread out that over the course of the years, or in some cases, NFL teams use what’s called void years. And it’s exactly as it sounds, right? So we may sign this safety to a three-year contract, but we tack two void years onto the end of it. So then that But $15 million, we can divide over five years instead of three years. And so instead of his bonus counting $5 million each year, it only counts $3 million. So you’ve now freed up $2 million of space. That’s before we get to his salary numbers, right? For example, this first year, a lot of teams will do this because they know the cap goes up and it’s a little bit easier to play with. Instead of his salary… being that $10 million a year we kind of mentioned this year, maybe his salary is the minimum, which is, I think for a player, it would be about $1.5 million. Well, so you take that $1.5 divided by that signing bonus, right? You have $15 million over three years. So his cap number went from being $15 million in the original scenario to being just over $6 million in the scenario we talked about, which means that they’ve essentially freed up $10 million worth of space that they could go spend this year. Now, the caveat to that is, The guaranteed money is always due at some point in time, right? The NFL is weird because you’ll see these big numbers running out, right? In the case of this Broncos guy, it’s really only a one-and-a-half-year guarantee. That’s really all the guaranteed money he’s got in this field. So if he doesn’t work out after this first year, the Broncos can pretty much cut him depending on how they structure it and bonuses and that sort of thing. And we’re teams with the Broncos, like the Broncos with Russell and all kind of in with this. They got messed up with the Russell deal because he had a big number and they had to pay a lot of that number in cash. Well, that number that was spread over the course of that deal, which I think was four or five years, had to be what’s called accelerated onto their existing cap situation. And that’s why it’s such a big deal for these teams to miss on players sometimes. But all that being said, if you’ve got a good team and a good cap management team, there’s flexible ways to move stuff around to where you can spend money. And with the Broncos having a cash-rich ownership group, it really helps them because they can pay a lot of money up front and spread that money out over the course of the entire contract.
SPEAKER 05 :
Okay. Thank you for the explanation. We will be right back. Regional Auto Brokers, if you’re looking for some new used cars, and I should say trucks as well. They’ve got some great trucks in stock right now as we speak. Give them a call, regionalautobrokers.com.
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SPEAKER 05 :
For the Much’s Mortgage, Kurt will give us an update for our Monday Mortgage Minute here in just a few minutes. In the meantime, Kurt’s direct line, 720-895-0500.
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SPEAKER 05 :
And we are back, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560, the time of the week where we combine it and drive radio together. We’ve got some car reviews to do. Richard, you have recently driven a 2025 Mazda CX-5 Turbo Signature.
SPEAKER 07 :
yeah so quite a mouthful dad but all you need to know is this is mazda’s best-selling vehicle basically this is sort of a compact crossover kind of is that i’m going to call it that mid-sized suv range right sits up a little bit higher than a typical sedan not quite as high as some of the the truck based your body on the frame suvs out there which is sort of a good compromise you can get this vehicle from anywhere from the kind of the very entry level trim for about just under thirty thousand dollars and by just under i mean just under or you can get it for, you know, above the car we drove, which was the Turbo Signature, for about $42,000. You can get an all-wheel drive, lots of different, you know, options for this vehicle. It’s got a lot of nice clutch features on the inside, lots of room, again, for those car seat folks out there. Maybe there’s not a lot of you, but for me, it matters. You’re able to fit boosters in the back, a little bit hard-pressed to get that rear-facing seat in there, especially if you’ve got a taller passenger, but not necessarily a huge deal. You have the 2.5S, which does bring a turbocharged engine into the mix, and we’ll get to those figures here in a second. But the signature level comes with lots of things that you can imagine, but especially body color, exterior trim, LED and ambient interior lighting, navigation system, wood trim, driver attention warnings, rear automatic braking, all sorts of stuff that you, again, I guess a lot of folks would really like. There are two differences on the turbo. Or I should say not two differences. They actually quote you power figures if you’re running on regular versus if you’re running on turbo. So if you’re running on regular fuel, you get about 256 horsepower. Or sorry, that’s on premium. If you go the regular fuel route, 227 horsepower. So you lose a little bit. Nothing that’s crazy. I will say up here at our altitude, Dad, it was really a joy to drive. This thing got up and went in traffic. It was really fun to operate. You didn’t have a great turbo lag or anything like that that you can sometimes get. Overall, I was very impressed with this car. You can see why. Again, it’s Mazda’s, one of their top-selling cars. and they’ve sort of gone with these other models. I guess I’m going to call them the dual-digit ones, right? Like the CX-90 and some of those. Well, there’s a similar model to this, the CX-50. The CX-5, I think, was supposed to be sort of replaced, but they still keep selling the thing because they sell a lot of them. It’s a great car. Yeah, absolutely. I think that folks would be really impressed. So I encourage folks, head to your local Mazda dealer, test drive this. They really do, especially if you’re in that… three to four size family household, or maybe there’s only two of you, but you still want a little bit extra room. Dad, it had great cargo room, great cargo space in the back, which was really nice. I encourage folks to check that out. Hit your local Mazda dealer and let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, I drove recently a 2025 Range Rover Velar Dynamic SE. Now, I will say that upon first glance, you look at this car and think, wow, this is a really, really expensive Range Rover because it looks expensive from the outside. Although, Richard, I will tell you that this car, and again, we typically get cars that are full bells, whistles, the whole nine yards, which this one, by the way, was. But the MSRP on this, $63,000. Now, some would say, man, that’s a lot of money. Well, actually, if you look at a full-size SUV, which this is, and you look at one that’s got all of the equipment and creature comforts on it, you will typically be higher than $63,000. So I’ll say that right off the bat. Great fuel economy, by the way. This one’s 2226 with an average of 23, which I was way above the 23 running around town. And I will just say straight up, Richard, minimalistic interior. It’s surprisingly nice, but it doesn’t have a lot of gadgets, I guess is the best way for me to say that, Richard. Which, by the way, I like the minimalistic end of things. Two-liter turbocharged engine, I will say straight up, at our altitude, 247 horsepower. A little lacking at times, but not so lacking that you wouldn’t drive this car on a daily basis and still have a lot of fun with it. So, with that being said, plenty of room inside. Plenty of cargo room. Very luxurious. I mean, it’s everything, Richard, that you would expect to come out of a Range Rover that is much higher priced. But in this particular category, it is priced well within its marketplace. Is this a vehicle that I would recommend? If you’re looking for a full-size SUV in that low 60K range, which, by the way, right now with some of the deals that are out there, Richard, you could probably buy for a little less than that. Given that, would I look at this car and would it come to one of the top of my list as far as the things that I would want to look at? It absolutely would. And as you know, and you’ve driven plenty of Land Rover, Range Rover products in the past, typically they are priced much higher than this.
SPEAKER 07 :
I was going to say, $60,000, that’s really hard to beat, especially for folks. And a lot of folks, you know who you are, you sort of see these things running around, and you’re like, man, that’s a really pretty car, right? Aesthetically, it’s just great. And you’re like, man, I don’t know if I can afford that. Well, again, this gives you an opportunity, Dad, and we’ve driven these cars over the years. to maybe get in it, and like you say, from even a simplistic form, right, in terms of some of the gadgets and sort of stuff on the inside, gives you a chance to experience that. So absolutely, it is a great car, especially for people that are in that, you know, maybe two to four household, even one to four, right? You know, just depending on what you’re looking for, I think it definitely gives you a great option in that luxury, kind of luxury compact SUV market.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, and again, I want to make sure I’m clear on this, too. This starts at 63.6. Ours completely loaded up, bells, whistles, the whole nine yards came in at 76. So ours had about, I don’t know, 13K worth of options. But you can get these, and I looked at them on the Internet. They start in the 63.6. A 636 range, yes, you can get them fully loaded almost all the way up to 80K, so depending upon how you want them fully equipped. But again, Richard, in its segment, for the actual market of what you get in this particular vehicle, again, my only complaint was I wish it had a little bit more power for the size of vehicle that it is. But again, would it keep me from buying this vehicle? No, it would not. I would recommend this if you’re looking for that full-size SUV and really want all of the creature comforts available. Look no further. Again, 2025 Range Rover Velar. Ours happened to be the Dynamic SE version. Richard, with that, I appreciate you. Let me say this, too. If you want to test drive one of those, make sure you go to your local Land Rover, Range Rover dealer. Tell them that John and Richard Rush both sent you. Okay, Richard, with all of that being said, we’ve got a lot of reviews that are on the Internet, or I should say on our website out on the Internet as well. And a lot of these vehicles will go into the used market. And I always want to remind people that you may be looking at one of these that are two, three, five years of age. We probably have a review on that car.
SPEAKER 07 :
We absolutely do. So, yeah, you may be thinking, oh, man, that’s maybe a lot now. Well, in a few years when that thing falls in value a little bit or just appreciates like any used car would, come back to the review because, again, a lot of what we say, well, obviously it’s not going to change, especially for used models. That’s right. So check it out.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, Richard, appreciate you very much. Have a great rest of your day. Cope Creek Heating and Air Conditioning is up next. AC season just around the corner. Make sure you’re dialed in. Give Cope Creek a call today. Find them at klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 15 :
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SPEAKER 09 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, and we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. I had one topic I was going to try to talk to you with Richard that I didn’t get to that I may push off to next week, and that is the fact that there’s a lot of, we do these car reviews, we talk about some of the high-tech gadgetry and things like that that are coming on these cars. There’s actually right now a little bit of a pullback on that tech, meaning that not everybody is into that. And if I get time to talk about that next week, we will, or maybe I’ll do that Saturday on Drive Radio. Hour number three is next. Don’t go anywhere. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 16 :
Ordinary average guy.
SPEAKER 1 :
Ordinary average guy.
