Don't Rely on the Password Reset

Think about your keychain. It probably holds the necessities: car keys, home keys, work keys, miscellaneous keychains you bought on your previous vacations. Now, imagine you have a keychain full of these keys that all look the same, but each only opens a specific door.

Sounds kind of like your list of passwords, right? But what happens when you have all of these keys, and you need to get into your house? In either situation it can be easy to forget which key, or password, goes to what door or website.

So, back to the locked door situation, what do you do? A friend wouldn't have a key that opens your house, and breaking down the door isn't a good option for obvious reasons. Would you rely on a locksmith to come change the locks every time you forget your key? That would get old very quick.

It's essentially the same thing when it comes to your passwords. It's almost like you're having to call a locksmith every time you want to get into your house because every time you leave, the lock changes. If you wouldn't rely on a locksmith every time you want to open your house, why rely on the password reset? Step up your password game instead.

If you have loads of accounts and can't deal with the hassle of creating and remembering long, strong passwords that are different for every account, then you need a password manager.

Not only will such a service help you create a killer password, but you'll get a single "master" password that gets into all of your accounts. A password manager will also eliminate having to reset passwords.

Use these tips to make sure that your passwords are strong and protected:

• Make sure your passwords are at least eight characters long and include mix matched numbers, letters and characters that don't directly spell any words.
• Use different passwords for separate accounts, especially for banking and other high-value websites.
• Change your passwords frequently.