I'm a guy so no one would ever guess that my password is Jackie.

I think the best way is to construct a short memorable sentence and use the first character of each word. And some words can be either the letter or numeral like too (t or 20)for (f or 4)
I think Clark likes this way too = password - itcltw2

for referance

I use streets that we lived on years ago, but adding a house number from another city where we lived. Recently I discovered my grown daughter was using some of the same passwords. But we keep changing the streets and numbers.

Monkey?

I've had "monkey" used in aliases or usernames, but not in passwords.

Monkey?

this is so very true.

You can create a unique and totally secure password for each site you visit, and never forget them. Just create a formula based on the web sites name.

Say your personal formula is to take up to the first 8 letters of the web site name, and then add a "15" before it and capitalize the last letter. And do that every time.

Using this formula my password for yahoo would be "15yahoO" My password for Clark Howard would be "15clarkhoW"

Each password completely unique and unguessable based on your own personal formula.

If you make your paswords list up ahead of time you will be more creative and less apt to fall into a routine in the listing, but where do you keep the list.

I just write the password on a post-it and stick it right on the screen. That was easy!

I make all my passwords in random characters and letters and numbers. I keep all passwords not memorized in some place in my home.

I use the first letter of each word of a nursery rhyme - Humpty dumpty sat on a wall - capitalizing the first letter, and add "@ 10" for the end of any password I create. Hdsoaw@10

I’ve been using what was recommended to me by my friend – computer expert.
Create a sentence you remember, for example I will love my white dog forever. Then use the first letters to create your password – iwlmwdf. If they ask for a number I add after ‘forever’ number 4. (iwlmwdf4).

Without getting too complicated, you can put two words together that separately mean something to you. Easy to remember yet hard to crack.

I must have close to 150 accounts that require passwords, and I use the same password for all of them: a string of 10 asterisks. It's easy to remember and I've only had my identity stolen four or five times in the past two years.

I actually HAVE been doing this for over 20 years now. Some of these ideas sound nice but if you had even close to the number of passwords I have to remember you would find your self locked out OFTEN going hmmm cap this convert WHAT? Get about 5 nouns you can always remember. Then make your self a start and end to them that are numbers or punctuation. !(cat)! 1234567890 is probably the most common 10 digit wep and password1 the normal password.

I use a combination of numbers and letters form co workers and myself, basically for example I use the badge number of an office I used to work for, the 2 digit number of the birthday of someone NOT close to me and dates and or letters that are from people close to me but I so nto use the exact dates, or letters assocuiated to anyone but a formula I concocted all on my own, whick of course I will not give that formula here. I made it up myself but anyone close to me or that I worked with will ever be able to figure it out because it is my own madness so to speak. ALso NVER use p@ssw0rd......I" used to work someplace and that was the password for EVERYTHING and someone figured that out!

OK article for the clueless I guess but these stories are running for years now.

I picked up this trick years ago, working network security - an easy compromise between the two extremes. I use unique (or almost unique) passwords for different sites or systems. Nothing is written down or saved anywhere (e.g. no programs involved). Recalled instantly. I always get in, and rarely get locked out. How?

My pwds are made from two parts- one part unique to EACH website or service, one part common to all my pwds. Has to be OBVIOUS to you and instantly recalled and applied.

For example: clarkhoward.com. = CLA. Plus the common element (say xyz99). Pwd for that site is "CLAxyz99".

You could do it different ways- the point is to be consistent. Email is EMAxyz99 (email) or OUTxyz99 (outlook), etc.

Even if someone gets one pwd, they won't be able to hack into other systems. Unless they uncover the pattern (which I made clear above on purpose).

If you stick to 8 characters (exactly), combine CaSe and Number5 you meet 99% of the requirements or limitations different websites try and force. My rule is add $ if special char is req'd (rare). Avoid specials (!@#$%^&* etc.) otherwise since so many systems will not support it (breaks your pattern).

But I have used this for 10+ years now and have had to write down only a handful of pwds. Combined with a bizarre username you can register everywhere (i.e. whiteZ123) and you have to commit VERY LITTLE to memory. As mobile as you are, no license fees or batteries required.

I also like to obfuscate about the "questions"... my favorite pet? REPEAT. Answer that to someone on the phone.

Common? add admin-adm1n

Pick out an animal name and spell it differently (zeebrah, munkee, donkee, dawg, kaatt, for example) and add numbers. OR, how about a special date with one of your initials after each number, such as 03x29y49z. OR your hero's name: 1CLARKHOWARD1, for example :0)

Ever heard of Perfect Paper Passwords? FREE from GRC.com under services. Passwords are FREE but you have to supply your own paper and ink!

here's my idea - every year i pick a company i like and use the stock symbol. then i choose a day from several years ago, and write that date, and the corresponding stock price, i.e. you pick general electric (stock symbol: GE), the date 2/10 (210) and the stock price at close on that date 5 years ago (3250). now arrange it date, company, price - 210Ge3250. You can change out caps or not if you want/need. every month, just pick a new date, or so its easy to remember, same date (10th) just the next month.

I let LastPass generate random passwords. I only have to remember one master password. And it's free!

Use your license plate number. That way you will remember it as well. Hopefully, it has both numbers and letters in it.

I like to use the first letters of the names of favorites pets I have had plus a number I can remember. Long and complicated passwords are dangerous because they almost always have to be wrote down. I do like the 2 dollar bill serial number idea...

One, If you have yahoo, rocketmail, ymail or anything yahoo for email, Change your zip code in the profile. Anyone can get your P/W if they know your zip code, birthday, and your screenname. From there, they can have forgotten P/W's for other accounts emailed to the hacked account. If they change your email P/W and zip code, you are locked out. Two, try a license plate and a model of a car for a P/W.

Use of an encrypted password database is encouraged assuming that the password to get into it is complex enough where no one can guess it. http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/ is what I use. cheers.

i use a very simple system that renders a different pw for each web site based on site name, it does not need to be remembered or stored.

To create a low tech:
I put together a low tech process for keeping passwords "out in the open" for a friend and thought you might benefit from it as well. It's so radically simple that you can keep passwords written down on a piece of paper in your wallet (or purse). In fact, you can even post them on your monitor at work!

It's simple and "encryption" just involves 2 steps. Let's take the password KChiefs (a friend lives in Kansas City).

Step 1
Reverse the case: kcHIEFS

Step 2
Move each character forward in the alphabet by one character: ldIJFGT

There you have it: KChiefs encrypted is ldIJFGT. That's the password you carry in your wallet.

Now to "decrypt" it, just reverse the process: Move each character back one. Then reverse case. That's it. And it'll work with every password you currently have. (If a password contains special characters like !, %, @, ~, *, etc., just retain them as is.)

You can modify the process by moving ahead with more characters, say two instead of just one. In this case, kcHIEFS would be meJKGHU.

Or you can start the process by moving back one or more characters rather than forward. Just keep it simple and easy to remember and apply.

To store and hide a low tech in "plain sight":
Open Windows Explorer (Windows key + E). Right-click inside a folder and create a new text (.txt) document. Put your passwords in it, save, and exit. Now, change the extension to something like dll or sys. If prompted to make the change, click OK. Now it will not stand out if any snoops around your PC. Just remember where you put it and what you named it. When you want to reopen it, simply change the extension back to .txt and it will open with NotePad when double-clicked.

I use an alpha numeric password that includes 4 numbers from a phone number I remember from the past, along with the 3 initials of a company I used to work for.

Good job to PC Mag increasing the number of hackers out there by getting the most popular passwords from email providers and.......then publicly announcing them. Good job to you too Clark.

I generate my own combination of alpha-numeric passwords with random upper and lower case letters and numbers and usually with the maximum number of characters allowed. There are usually no complete words. I do write them down and keep them in a secure place too, so I can find them when I need them.

I often use words in foreign languages that I speak and aren't similar to English and often don't use the Roman alphabet, but rather, transliterate them into English characters.

Also, if you have a file with all of your passwords saved, on Word or Excel for example, make sure they are encrypted with an impossible to guess password with a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols with more than twenty characters long. Common encryption software are Bit Locker for Windows and Truecrypt. I know that Apple has one specifically for Macs, but I can't remember what it is.

do not store passwords and logins in files on your harddrive named "passwords" or "logins". Hackers that make it to your harddrive look for these file and folder names.

I use randomly selected medicine names and dosages ie levothroxine25mcg

I like using something easy to remember, but break into the middle with a well known (to me) number sequence, such as: Mon0809day

Don't use your pet names. Eons ago when I sold on ebay, someone wrote me several times pretending to ask for info. Told me he was setting up a website for pets and was collecting pet names, Duh, I gave him mine. Yep, he got into my account and
took money. Luckily, I noticed and reported him.
Back then, they gave you the password online, back in the early 90's.

ncc1701 : )

I'll first go through this list to break into accounts before I try other things.

Someone emailed me all of their passwords one time. She thought she was emailing to her husband, but oops.. not only passwords, but the account numbers to go with them. Good thing I was honest, but that is stupidity.

I use a random 14-18 digit alphanumeric password for each website etc., and use the auto-enter feature on Firefox to put them in for me so that nothing needs to be remembered. (I also use a Master Passcode to secure this feature.)

I also keep all passwords and important information in an PGP-encrypted text file just for safekeeping. When passwords are occasionally changed, I update this file and re-encrypt.

Worth noting: the computer I use also has an EEPROM-based boot-password feature as well that cannot be bypassed using hardware-jumpers. This further secures all this information if the entire computer is ever stolen.

BlackBerries have a random password generator. I've used those quite a bit, and I manage to remember them.

I use the town my mom was born in, plus the year she was born. Easy for me to remember, but no one would ever guess it.

For a new password use the current time of day and plus the month or day name. For example:
020004friday or august020004. Be sure to write them down.