Most of the accounts that matter in a Burley Ridge household — email, Amazon, the school portal, the bank, the HOA payment page — are only as strong as the password in front of them. Reusing one “good” password is how a random shopping-site leak becomes someone in your email.
The rule that actually works
Use a password manager. It is an app that invents a long unique password for every site and remembers it for you. You memorize one strong passphrase for the manager itself. That is the whole system.
Good options for a household: Bitwarden (free and straightforward) or 1Password (paid, very polished). Apple’s Passwords app is fine if everyone in the house is on iPhone and Mac. The best one is the one you will actually open.
Make the one passphrase
Pick four or five ordinary words that do not belong together, with spaces. Something you can type on a phone. Write it on paper once, put the paper in a drawer, and after a week of daily use you will not need the paper.
Turn on two-factor authentication on email first, then the bank, then anything that can reset the rest. Prefer an authenticator app over a text message when the site offers it. Texts can be stolen; an app on your phone cannot, at least not from the sofa.
What to stop doing this week
- Stop emailing passwords to yourself.
- Stop using the same password on the school portal and the bank.
- Stop saving the important one in a Notes app titled “passwords.”
- Do not change every password tonight. Start with email. Then the bank. Then the rest as you log in.
If you want me to sit with you while you set the manager up, ask. Bring the devices you actually use, not the old laptop in the basement.