Quite often I will use the a word that describes a recent event in my life, and then add to it a special character (usually the same one) and a combo of numbers.
IE:
Just before or just after vacation my password might be: *Bea(h123
or if I was to have a birthday it might be: *0LdMan789
Since I have to change my access pwd at work every 14 days this is very handy (I never used either of those btw.
I use extremely complex passwords for my banking access, but it is typically still based on a real word, but changed enough that a dictionary cracker could not break it. Common english words are the first ones cracked. For example, take a word like "deliveryboy" and add a few numbers and punctuation marks and you get: D3liv3r7b0799
Finally when it comes to passwords that use very rarely go ahead and write them down, but for crissakes do not write down, "Bankpassword=D3liv3r7b0799" and carry it around in your wallet. Wrtie down the password BY ITSELF and store it someplace innocuous like on the back of a recipie card in the kitchen.
Well that's my two cents. later.