For me, kwallet & ssh public keys all the way. Kwallet makes passwords available to all programs I authorize. Authorize either on case-by-case basis, or once forever. If you really don't want to bother with KDE and/or want to be easily portable across everything POSIX, go for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factotum_(software) -- it has a simple protocol.
I remember literally 5 passwords: home computer, work computer, home wallet, work wallet, auxilliary bank account (just in case something happened to all of my computers at once).
Actually, scratch that, I can /type/ those passwords, but I don't really know their content.
† using ^C^V on passwords is a bad idea anyway; (depending on browser) websites can read contents of your clipboard. And check your recent browsing history. 2+2=...?