How to Create a Super-Safe Password That’s Easy to Remember

Q I have to remember so many passwords that require all kinds of number and letter combinations. How can I create something that I can remember?

A First, remember what not to do. Don’t use simple words or numbers someone might guess—your child’s name, your birthday or your anniversary date for example.

So, how does one create a better password? To begin with, it should be complex—a mix of letters (upper-, lowercase), numbers and even a sprinkle of punctuation marks.

I can anticipate your next question: OK, if it’s that complex, how am I going to remember it?

I’ll show you how to create a very secure password that is easy to remember. Begin by creating, say, a six-word sentence or phrase that’s easy to remember, such as Joseph (assuming that’s your name) knows how to add numbers. Take the first letter of each word, and you have these six letters: jkhtan. Now make the first three capital letters and the remaining three lowercase. If you’re 45 years old, add the 4 at the beginning of the password and 5 at the end. So now you have 4JKHtan5. Let’s add two punctuation marks to make it even stronger—a question mark in the front and an exclamation point at the end. So now you have this very powerful password that’s a cinch to remember: ?4JKHtan5!

You get the idea: Start with a sentence you can easily remember and build around it.