• Both new and used car prices are normalizing from pandemic peaks. But sales have flatlined, Bank of America says.
• Consumers are still priced out of the market due to rising interest and insurance costs.
• Some have turned to electric vehicles and hybrids, with EV loan originations rising steeply.

Car prices are falling back down to earth, in a steady decline from 2021 peaks. But that's no relief to consumer wallets, as car affordability remains low.

According to Bank of America, overall car sales have flatlined, despite post-pandemic recoveries ing both pricing and supply. 

During the COVID years, new car inventory slumped heavily, as stimulus-rich buyers looked for alternatives to public transport. Deepening the crunch were supply chain issues, which dented the availability of needed components for manufacturing. 

Used car purchases picked up as an alternative; as a result, used vehicle prices swung past those of new models.

But supply has since bottomed out, and inventory is showing slow signs of recovery. Despite this, buyers are not coming back as expected, with both new and used vehicle loan originations tumbling through 2023. That suggests that sales have plateaued.

"One reason for this flattening, we believe, is that the total 'all in' cost of ownership — including elevated interest rates, insurance, and maintenance costs — has become more expensive even as auto prices are declining," the bank wrote on Friday.

For instance, the note points out that car loan interest rates have jumped steeply since mid-2022. Citing a nearly four percentage point gain since then, it means that consumers would have to pay close to $100 more a month for the average new vehicle loan as of March.

And insurance costs are similarly trending upwards, having risen 22.6% year-over-year in April. According to the bank, premiums are likely to remain higher.

"In fact, Americans feel that vehicle maintenance and loans were two of the top five most difficult household expenses to afford as of April 2024," the report said, citing a recent Bank of America proprietary Market Landscape Insights study. "Nearly 45% of respondents reported difficulty affording these items, while the share was even starker for Gen Z at nearly 60%."

Owners are instead holding onto their vehicles longer, potentially as they wait out for affordability to improve. The average US vehicle age jumped 40% between 2001 and 2023, reaching 12.5 years.

For some consumers, this market has prompted interest in electric vehicles and hybrids, marked by a sharp rise in EV loan originations. But this trend has limits, Bank of America said, as buyers will need to face limited access to charging stations.

The offers and details on this page may have updated or changed since the time of publication. See our article on Business Insider for current information.

• At the beginning of the year, I was facing nearly $30,000 in credit-card debt.
• I made a budget to pay it off in 18 months, but a big project let me pay off most of it in just one.
• This article is part of "My Financial Life," a series helping people live and spend better.

When December ticked into January, I knew it was time to face something I had been putting off: my credit-card debt. When I added it up, it was even worse than I'd thought. I owed $29,357, and my monthly payments alone were approaching $1,000.

If I were reading about this happening to anyone else, I'd probably think, "How did that happen?" The truth is, it was just too easy. I wasn't dining out regularly, shopping impulsively, or doing anything extravagant. I racked up most of the debt improving my house, which I bought as a foreclosure in need of serious repairs. Another major chunk was from a bucket-list trip to Italy with my sister and cousins for a wedding.

I didn't regret either of those things, but I was starting to feel suffocated. I vowed to pay off my debt as aggressively as I could.

I realized I was undermining my financial security

I've been freelancing for more than a decade, and I believe there's a lot of job security in being a contractor. If one client goes under, I can find another. Yet at the start of this year, I barely had any work.

This compounded my stress about my credit-card debt. A major change in my workflow could make it impossible to keep up with even the minimum payments. That much debt could easily snowball and overwhelm me, flattening my plans for a stable financial future.

Over the past five years, I've worked hard to create a stable career — and eventual retirement — as a freelancer. To me, that means being able to pay for my needs and wants comfortably while doing the type of work I love. I save monthly for retirement and budget diligently for quarterly taxes. I felt frustrated with myself when I realized I was leaking money on credit-card interest when it would otherwise help build my security.

I made a budget and planned to pay off the cards in 18 months

My resolve was strong, but I was still overwhelmed by the sheer amount of debt. I thought about a home-equity loan, but I didn't want to change unsecured debt for a loan that put my home on the line.

Instead, I put together a budget — something I'd been good about sticking to in the past — and laid out all my household expenses. With my low January income, I would just meet them. I decided to do a no-spend month, where I didn't purchase anything but essentials — not even coffee. I stopped using the cards and canceled any automatic charges and subscriptions linked to them.

I planned to stick to my budget and direct any extra income toward my debt. I thought it would take me about 18 months, which made me think twice about how much I really needed that trip to Italy or the new floors.

An unexpected project gave me a huge boost

I stuck to that plan for the first few weeks of the year. Then, in February, I had a huge windfall. An occasional client explained they had a massive project that needed to be finished that month. At first, I thought it would be about $5,000 of extra income, and I was thrilled to be able to pay off a chunk of my debt.

As the month went on, the project ramped up instead of slowing down, and I worked long hours daily. I felt glued to my computer, but by the end of the month, I had made almost $25,000 more than in a typical month. It all went to my credit cards.

I feel like I have a clean slate and a better understanding of my financial goals

Getting that project felt like a gift — a chance to right the wrong choices I'd made financially. I had $5,000 in credit-card debt left after that, and I'm following my budget to pay that off. That feels like a much more manageable amount, and I'll be able to pay it off this year.

Now, I'm determined to use my clean slate to set up a solid financial future, not one built on debt. I'm already planning to increase the amount of money I put in my retirement plan and tackle my remaining student loans next year.

Like most millennials, I can get distracted by the shiny spend-now, pay-later promise of credit cards. But after feeling overwhelmed by them and being lucky enough to escape, I know that the real goal is a future where I'm financially stable enough to fit major expenses into my cash flow, including the travel and home improvements that almost took me down. 

• A number of NATO members have relaxed restrictions on Ukraine using their weapons to strike Russia.
• The US and its allies have moved recently to allow Ukraine to hit targets across the border. 
• The policy changes could help Ukraine repel Russian glide-bomb strikes in and around Kharkiv city.

A handful of NATO countries have lifted the restrictions on Ukraine using their weapons to strike military targets inside Russia, giving Kyiv's forces new battlefield options that could help them defeat the highly destructive glide bombs they have so far struggled to stop.

Ukraine had long been barred from using Western-provided weapons to strike beyond its borders, as many of its partners — including the US — were concerned that allowing Kyiv to do so would lead Russian President Vladimir Putin to escalate the conflict even further.

Western positions on this issue have softened in the wake of Russia's ongoing offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region, which began last month. Ukrainian officials argued the restrictions essentially prevented Kyiv from stopping the onslaught by giving Moscow space from which it could mass troops and launch glide bombs with impunity.

Multiple NATO countries have now either partially or completely lifted their restrictions. Facing increasing pressure from Ukraine and its European partners, the US finally changed its long-held stance last week, allowing Kyiv to strike inside Russia — but only in the area near the Kharkiv region.

Conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank said "the provision of Western air-defense systems and the lifting of Western restrictions on Ukraine's ability to strike military targets in Russian territory with Western-provided weapons remain crucial for Ukraine to repel Russian glide bomb and missile strikes against Kharkiv City."

"These policy changes will allow Ukrainian forces to use Western-provided systems to strike Russian firing and staging areas in Russia's border areas and airspace," the analysts wrote in a June 2 assessment.

They said Ukraine's demonstrated ability to down Moscow's warplanes in front-line areas in past battles suggests Kyiv can likely find success again and protect Kharkiv city and the greater region from glide-bomb strikes launched from Russian airspace.

Glide bombs have been a threat to Ukrainian forces throughout much of the war, but they have proven to be a significant problem in recent weeks as Russia used them to pound Kharkiv city and the surrounding area. Russian aircraft can launch these standoff weapons from the safety of their own airspace and out of the reach of Ukraine's air-defense systems.

The only ways for Ukraine to defend troops and civilians from these bombs is to intercept the Russian aircraft before a launch or strike them on the ground. Kyiv has largely been unable to do this, but the policy changes — and the additional air-defense capabilities from the West — could help give the country more reach and resources to engage the threat.

"Ideally, launch aircraft would be caught on the ground, but as a fallback, a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system like Patriot — with a range of around 100 miles (depending on the target) — could be pushed closer to the front line to shoot down Russian aircraft before release," Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at RUSI, wrote in new commentary.

He said that these "so-called 'SAMbushes' involve removing launchers from around infrastructure and putting them at greater risk of attack, but pose a challenge to Russian aircraft which currently fire from airspace where they believe themselves to be safe."

Experts like Savill, however, have warned that the policy changes are not necessarily a silver bullet for Ukraine, and deep-strike capabilities alone won't be enough to win the war.

The Biden administration's relaxing of its policy also comes with its limitations. Ukraine can only conduct cross-border strikes in Russian territory right around the Kharkiv region, and it is still barred from conducting longer-range strikes with its most powerful US-provided missiles. Kyiv must instead rely on American-provided rockets and artillery.

Washington's guidance is "specifically focused on Ukraine's defense against military targets that are just over the border, and targets that Russia is using to physically launch offensives against Ukraine proper," White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday.

The US policy prohibiting Ukraine from using its supply of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, also known as ATACMS, or conducting long-range strikes inside Russia "has not changed," Kirby added.

US officials have stressed that Washington could still make further adjustments to its policy, but it's ultimately dependent on evolutions on the battlefield. Whether the Biden administration will become even more lenient with its restrictions — following in the footsteps of some of its European allies — remains to be seen.

Speaking in Prague on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the "hallmark" of American support for Ukraine has been to "adapt and adjust as necessary to meet what's actually going on on the battlefield, to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs when it needs it, to do that deliberately and effectively."

"That's exactly what we're doing in response to what we've now seen in and around the Kharkiv region," Blinken told reporters. "Going forward, we'll continue to do what we've been doing."

Ukraine has already taken advantage of the new policy. On Monday, for instance, Kyiv reportedly used rockets fired from its US-provided M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, to strike Russian air-defense assets in the Belgorod region, which is just over the border from Kharkiv.

According to media reports and open-source intelligence accounts, Ukraine struck Russian S-300/S-400 air-defense systems that have been repurposed for surface-to-surface applications and have been used in attacks around Kharkiv.

• The CEO of Athletic Brewing, Bill Shufelt, feels that the term "sober" is outdated.
• "Why does there have to be a word for when you're not consuming" alcohol, Shufelt asked.
• The CEO, who is in the alcohol-free beer business, argued for terms that allow for more flexibility.

Bill Shufelt gave up alcohol over a decade ago and cofounded a non-alcoholic beer company several years later in 2017.

Now, Athletic Brewing is reportedly the most popular non-alcoholic beer brand in the US, according to NielsenIQ data.

But, Shufelt, who hasn't had a drink in over 10 years, finds the term "sober" outdated and a concept that society has largely outgrown, the CEO said in a podcast episode of The Logan Bartlett Show released on Friday.

"Why does there have to be a word for when you're not consuming it," Shufelt said, in reference to alcohol. He said most people are sober most of the time, and said that there wasn't a term for people who abstain from energy drinks.

Shufelt told Business Insider that the word "sober" was in use before prohibition and it became a word to define people who never drank after that period.

"The perception is that most people are consuming alcohol anytime they leave their house for a social outing," Shufelt said. "But it turns out that way more people rarely drink versus those who drink daily or even weekly."

Shufelt said that in modern life, alcohol fits into fewer occasions, and many Gen Z's are changing their drinking habits based on the availability of alternative options, not even necessarily because of a distaste for alcohol.

The term "sober" is defined as abstaining from drinking or drugs, according to Merriam-Webster, but there are several variations in the way it's used today.

Others more recently use the term "sober curious" to refer to an exploratory period where they cut down or abstain from drinking alcohol. Others call themselves "Cali sober" for ditching alcohol but using Marijuana.

Shufelt brought up the term "flexitarian diet" in the podcast, which refers to when people eat meat occasionally on an otherwise plant-based diet. Whether people call themselves "flex sober" or say that they drink alcohol occasionally, Shufelt told Bartlett it should be a "much more flexible mindset these days."

Shufelt has previously used the term "flex sober" to describe his consumers, 80% of whom still consume alcohol, according to a company spokesperson. Shufelt also said most adults have less than one drink per week and the alcohol-beverage industry is largely missing out on serving that cohort of people who drink alcohol minimally.

Shufelt grew up facing pressure to drink in social and work-related settings, and he eventually started to rethink his life in terms of health, fitness, and career, a spokesperson said — and he found that alcohol was holding him back. Shufelt said in the podcast that alcohol was impacting his productivity and he didn't want to get to the point where he had children and was "blowing himself up on Friday."

Shufelt co-founded Athletic Brewing Company right before the sober curious movement started to take off in 2018. That year, a survey from the University of Michigan indicated millennials and Gen Zers were drinking less than the last two generations.

By 2021, beverage analysts told Business Insider that they expected the non-alcoholic beverage market to expand, and it has.

The ongoing trend is about being more mindful and moderating drinking more than anything else, an Athletic Brewing Company spokesperson told Business Insider. The company doesn't suggest that people should cut out alcohol entirely, but it's about having an accessible option for people who may want to cut it out, or just cut back, the spokesperson said.

For Shufelt, whose business revolves around convincing people to give non-alcoholic beer a try, he said going cold turkey and abstaining completely from alcohol was right for him at that time in his life.

But, in hindsight, he wondered on the podcast if having a compelling non-alcoholic alternative to switch to after a regular beer when he was younger would have provided "an easy bridge" to moderation, and allowed for a more flexible approach.

You can watch the entire interview with Shufelt below (his remarks around moderation and sobriety start at around the 1 hour, 2-minute mark).

• I'm British, and my kids go to school in the US, where we live.
• There are notable differences between the education system in America and my native UK.
• I envy the British version because it is much easier for children — and their parents.

When my British friends ask what it's like to educate my kids in the US, the first issue they raise is the risk of school shootings.

Last year, no fewer than 21 people died, and 42 were injured in incidents of gun violence in and around American schools.

In contrast, the last school shooting in the UK — when a gunman murdered 16 elementary students and a teacher — happened in 1996. As a result, the public called for tighter gun controls, which the British government enforced.

My friends' next question is often related to academic achievement.

In 2018 — the most recent year the research was performed — the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranked the overall knowledge and skills of British 15-year-olds as 13th in the world in reading, literacy, mathematics, and science.

The same assessment found that 15-year-olds in the US were ranked 25th globally.

It's difficult to compare public school systems forensically because of the countries' vastly different populations and government infrastructures.

However, feedback from my British friends has convinced me that the setup in the UK is more user-friendly for kids and parents.

Here are three key reasons.

Kids in the UK start school as young as 4

By law, children in the UK enter the publicly-funded British school system as young as 4.

Most begin full-time classes in "reception" — the first step on the educational ladder — in the September after their 4th birthday. Research has consistently shown that early childhood education helps kids develop academically and socially.

It also relieves a huge financial burden on working parents, who no longer have to pay babysitters or nursery schools for private childcare.

The age at which American parents are mandated to send their children to school depends on the state. In New York, for example, they are only obliged to attend by law after first grade.

School breaks are better spread out in the UK

My friends in the UK can't believe my kids have an entire 10-week summer break from school.

"What on earth do you do with them for 10 weeks?" my daughter's godmother once asked. She grimaced when I told her we fork over thousands of dollars for day and sleep-away camps.

Almost every child in Britain gets a six-week summer break, two weeks at Christmas and two weeks at Easter. There is usually a one-week "half-term" in February, May, and October.

Responding to parents' complaints about the length of the standard summer break, some education authorities reduced it to five as an experiment. The extra week was added to the May half-term, giving kids 10 days off instead of five in the Spring.

Kids wear uniform

Most government-run schools in the UK require students to wear a school uniform. The protocols contrast those in the US, where most public school kids can wear what they want to class — albeit within reason.

As a mom whose teens can waste hours picking an outfit to wear every morning, I'd like uniforms to be compulsory nationwide. I'm tired of the endless arguments over what clothes are "appropriate" or not.

Meanwhile, I shudder when I hear about "elite" cliques of high schoolers dressed head to toe in Lululemon. I can't bear to think of a kid being bullied because they're wearing something from Old Navy instead.

A friend said her kids wear what they want for a few designated days on the UK school calendar, such as the last day of term. "The stress of competitive dressing is high-octane," she said.

Uniforms are not only levelers but also support the idea of a community or team. Kids look more put together in a uniform, and it's good training for entering a profession.

Do you have a powerful story highlighting the differences between education in the US and other countries? If you'd like to share it with Business Insider, please send details to jridley@businessinsider.com.

• Google Scholar is a searchable database of academic literature.
• It connects users with studies and journal articles on nearly any topic of scholarly interest.
• Google Scholar is free to search, but some of the results may require payment or membership to read.

Google Scholar is a search engine Google created to parse though a massive database of scholarly literature, looking for the best matches for your search terms.

Google Scholar was released in beta form in late 2004, and soon used far and wide by students, researchers, authors, and others. The search engine not only grants users to access vast troves of information, but it also makes it easy to cross reference things against other sources and keep up with the latest research as it is published.

And what you won't get on Google Scholar are search results from non-academic sources like personal blogs, social media posts, YouTube videos, or other less substantive and reliable sources. 

If you want fun and games, go with Google Games; if you want scholarly research, stick with Google Scholar.

Using Google Scholar, found at scholar.google.com, you can access these kinds of sources (and more):

• Journals
• Conference papers
• Academic books
• Pre-prints
• Theses and dissertations
• Abstracts
• Technical reports

Here's everything you need to know about the powerful research tool:

How to use Google Scholar

Anyone can access the search database. And while it's built with college and grad students, researchers, and other academics in mind, anyone can reap its benefits.

Here are just a few examples of what you can do through Google Scholar: 

• Create alerts. Google Scholar is for creating a body of research around a topic of interest, such as global warming, let's say. Much like with the standard Google Alerts, you can create alerts for the topic so you're always up-to-date on the latest info.
• Explore related works. You can gain deeper knowledge of any topic in which you're interested by exploring related citations, authors, and publications, as identified by Google Scholar.
• Check out the References section. Accessing an article's References section can help you branch out your research to see what sources an author used for their paper. 
• Save articles to your library. Saving your searches to your Google Scholar library helps you organize and keep track of your favorite results. 
• Cite articles in your preferred format. On the search results page, click the Cite button; the pop-up window will offer citations ready in whichever style you need, like MLA, APA, and Chicago.

Accessing information 

Google Scholar is free to use as a search tool. However, since it pulls information from many sources, it's possible that some of the results you pull up will require a login or even a payment to access the full information.

Whether an article is free depends on a variety of factors, like the publication and its funding agency mandates. Go to the Public Access section of the Google Scholar profile to view its mandates — if a free version is available, you'll see an HTML or PDF link on the right side. 

Still, descriptions or abstracts are typically free and provide an overview of the article's content so you can make an informed decision about whether to spend money. 

Remember that not all scholarly research is created equal — different journals have different standards for publication. Not every article listed on Google Scholar will be peer-reviewed (a peer review is when the author's fellow researchers and scholars in the same field review the article's content for research quality). 

To find out whether a research article on Google Scholar is peer-reviewed, the best strategy is to visit the website of the journal the article is published in. Most peer-reviewed journals will explicitly state they are peer-reviewed.

Search tips and best practices 

• Sort your searches by date (or specify a starting date) to find the newest, most relevant data. At the top left corner of the search results page, you can choose to search for articles published "Any time," since a given year, or in a custom range of year — say between 2015 and 2020, were you to want to research a topic without the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic coloring it. 
• Look out for the keywords "all versions," "related articles," and "cited by" to include free versions of articles in your search results; you should look for PDFs and postings by libraries.
• Look through an article's references to gain a deeper understanding of a topic.
• Check out metrics like the h-index to see the output and impact of a researcher or publication.

Overall, Google Scholar provides an excellent avenue into scholarly research, and while it does have its drawbacks, it's a tool that can be used to help clarify, explore and inform users about a wide variety of topics. 

Just as Google Earth can help guide you around the planet and Google Translate can demystify other languages, Google Scholar can unlock the world of academia for all.

• Google Scholar is a searchable database of scholarly literature.
• It connects users with studies and journal articles on nearly any topic of interest.
• Not all articles are free — you might need a membership to read the full versions.
• Visit Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories.

Established in 2004, Google Scholar is a massive database of scholarly literature that allows users to access information, cross reference it with other sources, and keep up with new research as it comes out.

Using Google Scholar, you can access these kinds of sources:

• Journals
• Conference papers
• Academic books
• Pre-prints
• Theses and dissertations
• Abstracts
• Technical reports

Here's everything you need to know about the powerful research tool.

How to use Google Scholar

Anyone can access the search database. And while it's built with college or grad students and other academics in mind — to help those writing academic papers create bibliographies more easily — anyone can reap its benefits.

Here are just a few examples of what you can do through Google Scholar: 

• Create alerts. You can create a library of research around a topic of interest, like global warming, and create alerts for it so that you're always up-to-date on the latest research.
• Explore related works. You can gain deeper knowledge around a complicated topic that you're interested in, like studies in the field of astronomy, by exploring related citations, authors, and publications.
• Check out the References section. Accessing an article's References section can help you branch out your research to see what sources an author used for their paper. 
• Save articles to your library. Saving your searches to your Google Scholar library helps you organize and keep track of your favorite results. 
• Citation export. You can export an article's full citation in your preferred format using the "Bibliography Manager" section. 

Accessing information 

Google Scholar is free to use as a search tool. However, since it pulls information from many other databases, it's possible that some of the results you pull up will require a login (or even payment) to access the full information.

Still, descriptions or abstracts are typically free and provide an overview of what's contained within the article. 

Overall, Google Scholar provides an excellent avenue into scholarly research, and while it does have its drawbacks, it's a tool that can be used to help clarify, explore and inform users about a wide variety of topics.

• A wild attempted bribery is rocking a Minnesota pandemic fraud trial.
• A woman dropped off a bag of $120,000 in cash to the juror's house.
• "This is stuff that happens in mob movies," the prosecuting attorney told the court.

Like something straight out of a mob movie, a juror in a Minnesota pandemic fraud trial was offered $120,000 cash to vote for acquittal.

Just before the jury was set to begin deliberations on Monday, Assistant US Attorney Joseph Thompson announced the apparent attempted bribery to the court, according to the Minnesota Reformer.

The unnamed 23-year-old juror was assigned to a federal fraud case against seven people accused of stealing $49 million from a federally funded child nutrition program, the Reformer reported.

Their case is just one in a series of cases against dozens of individuals who, through a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future, the DOJ alleges stole a total of $250 million in the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme to date.

Thompson told the court that on Sunday night, a woman driving a Madza went to the juror's home and left a bag containing $120,000 in cash with her father-in-law, telling him there'd be "another bag tomorrow" if she voted for acquittal, the Minnesota Reformer reported.

The juror, who was not home at the time of the illicit delivery, later called 911, and the FBI picked up the money from her on Monday morning, according to the Reformer.

"This is outrageous behavior," Thompson said in court, according to the outlet. "This is stuff that happens in mob movies."

Defense attorney Andrew Birrell also expressed dismay at the bizarre development, calling it "a troubling and upsetting accusation," according to the Reformer.

The FBI has confiscated the defendants' cell phones until a search warrant can be granted, and the prosecution is asking to have them held in custody until a verdict is decided, MPR News reported.

After questioning all the other jurors in the case, the judge determined that none of them had also been approached about the case. Still, according to MPR News, she said she plans to sequester the jury overnight.

The juror who alerted authorities to the alleged bribery attempt was excused from the trial, the Reformer reported.

Lawyers for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI. Thompson also did not respond to a request for comment.