Hackers can't get into your computer without your help. Don't believe everything Hollywood shows you. Really good hackers aren't going to waste time hacking a personal computer unless you happen to be Elon Musk. Run a decent malware/virus program and don't click on ANY email links, and stay away from dangerous sites (Malwarebytes does an excellent job of detecting these sites and warns you.) and your computer will be safe. Almost all corporations that get hacked are because some employee clicked on a email link!
Before password generator and storage programs became easy to use, I kept my passwords in an Excel spreadsheet. It was a bit of a pita, especially when switching computers, but at least I could assign different passwords to different sites. The better programs integrate themselves into your browser, and a good browser such as FireFox can integrate itself between any computer you use. I use Firefox on my desk top, tablet and phone and thus, a password I generate while using my phone gets ported to both my tablet and my desk top. The passwords it generates are typically around 20 characters long, contain a combination of upper/lower case letters, numbers and symbols, none of which are actual words and no two generated passwords are the same. This last feature is most important!
Is it possible your password manager could get hacked? Yes, but only with your help. First, password protect all your devices, either with a physical password or fingerprint/facial recognition. This prevents unauthorized use by anyone other than you. Second, use malware/virus protection. Third, be wary of ALL email! I typically get 2 to 10 emails a day trying to scam me by getting me to click on a link. If you look at the email address the mail was sent from, you will note that NONE OF THEM COME FROM WHERE THEY CLAIM!!! PayPal, Norton and Amazon DO NOT SEND EMAIL FROM GMAIL ACCOUNTS!!! I won't even click on a link from my bank. If I get a email from them, I'll call them using the phone number on the back of my card or I will go to their website. Remember, clicking on a link from an email is the number one way you can get into trouble with a scammer or hacker!
Over the years, a half dozen places from financial to medical providers have been hacked where I had accounts or was a patient. That information gets sold on the black market so any information that was hacked, including passwords. A couple years ago, I got a phishing email from a scum bag trying to extort money claiming he knew personal information about me and included a password I had used in the past as "proof". I hadn't used the password in decades and the email went into the trash. If I used that email at multiple places - including banking or a marketing site like Amazon, that scammer could have used it to raise havoc with those places - just like what happened to kmecjohnson, the original poster of this thread.
