Summertime and the living is easy.
The poor old UK investor may beg to differ, having spent this particular summer grappling with badly-holed equity funds, duff savings rates and with-profits products that may soon have to change their names to "without-profits", or even "with-losses", to comply with trades description regulations.
Zeros (zero-dividend preference shares), on the other hand, have lived up to their name big time, but not to their promises of secure returns. Flogged like sweets to risk-averse investors, a number of zeros collapsed earlier this year.
Meanwhile, large companies have been queuing up to announce the closure of generous final-salary pension schemes to new staff, who were shunted off to the frozen wastes of money-purchase land. Employer contributions were quietly slashed for the new recruits.
Worst of all, commentators have proved unremittingly gloomy about the prospects of any early upturn, leaving us sitting miserably on piles of cash.
This type of scenario is meat and drink to disciples of Warren Buffett, who invest when everyone else is running for cover and sit on their hands when the rest of the world is piling into shares.
It's a perfectly good dictum - history provides ample proof of its worth - but it only really works for those with nerves of steel, or who have a fair chunk of money.
Most investors lack the confidence to try it. Fortune may favour the brave, but cowards prefer to sleep at night.
As you relax in the garden on this (fingers crossed, as I write) sunny Bank Holiday Sunday, it's time to consider the latest financial trends. You don't have to lift a finger; just enjoy the warm glow of unaccustomed optimism.
Worried about a property crash? Consider this. According to several sources, there is growing evidence of a slowdown in house price inflation. If this trend continues, we may yet be able to avoid calamity. We may even be entering a period of relative calm in the housing market.
Meanwhile, high street spending is definitely on the wane. According to the Office for National Statistics, retail sales growth slowed for the third month running in July. This has to be good news for those expecting a consumer borrowing crisis.
More and more commentators are beginning to make bullish noises about equities, although they're still wary of the effects of corporate fraud and bellicose sentiment in the US. Keep an eye on developments.
Although savings rates may look miniscule compared with what we're used to, they're pretty generous in real terms.
A few years ago, savings accounts were frowned upon because they failed to keep up with inflation. Nowadays, the best accounts pay rates that are not only way above inflation (currently hovering at about 2 per cent), but also comfortably above the bank base rate, currently 4 per cent (though on page 9, we highlight savings accounts that still offer miserly returns).
Stop trying to second-guess the future. Don't pay attention to scary predictions from experts. They get it wrong much more often than they are right.
Go back to basics. The traditional advice is still the best: keep it simple, pay off debts, don't take risks you can't live with, never invest in anything you don't understand and never gamble with money you can't afford to lose.
Most important of all, relax.