It's hard to keep track of passwords. Full stop. It's hard for everybody, young and old. But the seniors I work with have some special challenges.
Photo Credit - Sufi Nawaz via Freeimages.com
The first is that many have memory difficulties. Another is that a friend or relative may have set up their email or Amazon accounts for them. Another is that they are often unsophisticated users of the web and don't realize that the password for their email may be different from the password for their bank.
The single most common response I get from someone in their eighties or nineties when I ask them for their email password? "I don't have one". That's because for the most part they never need to type it in. Once their account is set up they're never asked for it again. Until something goes wrong, which may be years later. And so they forget all about it.
Many people, myself included, use password manager programs like LastPass or 1Password to keep track of the passwords. But I generally don't recommend these for my older clients because they're overkill for someone who needs to remember only two or three passwords.
So, what to do?
Keep it simple. Have a single piece of paper that clearly lists each website and its associated user ID and password. For example:
Amazon.com
User ID = Gmail address, Password = 5432Helen
Make sure that the list gets updated if the password ever needs to be changed. And make sure it's kept somewhere handy.