How to reset your email password is one of the most searched for phrases on Google (News - Alert) according to a recent study published on Tech Republic. Surprisingly, less than half of Americans with email accounts use unique passwords.

In fact, most email account owners also save their passwords on Google so that they don’t have to enter the details every time they want to access their accounts.

Why are passwords so hard to remember?

You Don’t Use a Password Often

A study by Rutgers University—New Brunswick showed the human memory changes depending on how often you use something. If you have an online account you log into daily, it’s easy to remember its password.

By comparison, passwords for accounts you rarely log into are easy to forget. That’s because your brain will register it as something it doesn’t need to remember. That being said, many online companies have been offering ways to save your passwords so that you don’t have to remember them.

Security wise, saving your passwords on Google is a risky move. Anyone who breaches your Google account and get hold of passwords to other important accounts.

 Too Many Accounts and Passwords

When you think about it, nearly every online company has an option to create an account and secure it with a password. You can’t even have fun playing online games or streaming movies and music without being asked to create an account.

Too many passwords make it difficult to remember each often. That’s why many people reuse the same passwords. Security experts believe it’s wrong to use one password on multiple accounts.

But what’s the solution when there are too many passwords to remember? Using a password manager is a great decision. In fact, it’s the recommended solution where you can’t access an account without a password. Think of bank accounts, Facebook, Twitter (News - Alert) and Instagram.

If you can access a service without needing an account, it’s an even better solution. An example is no account casinos. Find out more on this Pay N Play casino guide.

You Never Logout

For some, the best way to manage multiple passwords is to never log out of their accounts. They log into an account, say Facebook (News - Alert), and click on the ‘auto save’ feature. It sounds like a good idea to access your account seamlessly without entering a password.

But as we mentioned earlier, failing to logout of your account exposes your account. Imagine leaving your Google Pay or PayPal (News - Alert) account logged in at all times. If you ever lose your mobile device or laptop, someone could easily withdraw your funds.

Luckily, security technology is advancing. And it’s becoming harder to completely wreck someone’s life because they lost their devices. Precisely, most payment accounts like PayPal and Google Pay have 2-Factor Authentication.

As such, even if someone gets hold of your password, they would need a code sent to your email address, phone or an Authenticator app to breach your account. Hacking all these accounts is difficult.

You Need a Unique Password for Every Account

Gone are the days when you could get away with a four-digit password. Back then, you could use your nickname, date of birth or your cell phone number as a password. You could use the same password at multiple accounts without experiencing issues.

Then cybercrime exploded and online companies introduced new rules about password creation. Today, a length text-based password isn’t enough to earn you an online account. You need to throw in a few digits and symbols to make it strong and unique.

Now, it wouldn’t be hard to remember one unique password at multiple online accounts. But you need a strong password for all your accounts. If you have 20 accounts—which isn’t impossible in today’s world—remembering them can be a nightmare.

You Save Your Password at the Wrong Place

One of the reasons people forget passwords is because they save them at the wrong places. 59% of people save passwords in their memory, according to research by Bit warden. But as we stated earlier, the brain is terrible at memorizing passwords unless you demonstrate you need the passwords occasionally.

Use a password to access an account daily and your brain will memorize it. Stay a month without using a password, and you’ll need to reset your password at some point. Memorizing aside, 33% of people save their passwords on paper.

Ideally, there’s nothing wrong with storing your passwords on paper. Paper can’t be hacked. And you can store it safely. Unfortunately, you can also lose a paper. It can get damaged or you can forget where you kept it.

28% of Internet users save their passwords on computer documents. Most people can access computer documents seamlessly thanks to backups. But if your PC is hacked, someone else could grab your passwords.

Using a password manager ranks fourth on the list of ways people save their passwords. Interestingly, this is the recommended choice for security experts around the world.

You Can get Another Password

When you think about it, most people don’t invest in securing their passwords because they can easily get another one. Imagine if there was no way to access your Netflix account if you lost it. There would be fewer Netflix customers.

What if you couldn’t reset banking passwords? People would sue banks to extinction. To avoid annoying their customers, online companies devised ways to reset passwords. You can lose any password and don’t get into panic mode.

Unfortunately, the ease of changing passwords makes people reluctant to memorize them. They know they can reset their passwords and access their accounts again any time they want.

Summary

There’s no doubt managing passwords is becoming difficult. There are too many online services that need password protection. All of them ask you to set a strong password. On the flip side, experts say you shouldn’t reuse your password.

This forces people to rely on their brains, paper and computer documents to store their passwords. According to experts, though, the best way to remember your passwords is to use a password manager.