Do you have a passport? You'll need one starting today

No whining! The deadline was supposed to come in 2006, and then Congress pushed it back. But today, the party's over. If U.S. citizens want to set foot outside this country, they now need some kind of passport. That includes cruise ports, Mexico, and Canada, places for which a driver's license used to do.

Just in time for summer travel, you can add the following price to the price of your vacation: $85 to $100 for first-time passport holders. Factor that into your budget. Fortunately, you only have to pay it once every decade, because that's how long a passport lasts.

The State Department also issues so-called "passport cards," which are the size of credit cards and cost $35 to $45. Those can only be used for land or sea crossings, such as on cruises or on drives into Canada or Mexico, and they won't work if you take a plane, even to those two countries.

A precious few overseas locations, such as Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Guam, will still welcome you on a driver's license or similar low-level I.D., but even those places will make you have one if you stop anywhere else on your trip there or back.