There's no such thing as a completely hacker-proof password.  But most of the suggestions for creating a virtually hacker-proof password are super cumbersome.  I recently visited a friend-of-a-friend in São Paulo whose network password was so complicated, it took three tries just to transcribe it correctly: "onc3 upon A tim3 … In A l@nd F@r, F@r aw@y" (it was actually longer and more complicated, if you can believe it!)

Most of us need to strike a balance between easy to remember, unique to the site and hard to hack.  Here's my  formula:  Start with a simple word or word combination that's easy for your to remember and type — something like fishbait.  Add a memorable 4-digit non-sequential number – fishbait2020.  Now add or include one non-alpha character – like fishbait2020@.  Finally, so that all of your passwords are different, but easy to remember, add the first letter of the host site the password belongs to — for Amazon, your harder-to-hack password would be: fishbait2020@a, for Citibank: fishbait2020@c.  Not perfect, but given how simple most passwords are, well-below average hackability should prove effective enough for the likes of you (and me). 

Note to mom: Don't worry — my publishing of this method will NOT decrease the safety and efficacy of your passwords.