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Managing your debts wisely

In the current chaotic economic environment many people are more worried about their ability to manage their personal finance commitments with several institutions. This may be due to concerns over job security or changing economic circumstances within the household.

If you’re having trouble juggling many accounts and ensuring you meet the differing due dates for payments, or the terms, conditions and contracts on different types of loans or credit, a debt consolidation loan could be worth investigating.

A debt consolidation loan allows you to simplify your money matters by consolidating your personal finances into something more manageable. You roll your current debts into a single easier-to-manage loan with one fixed repayment at regular intervals – generally each week, fortnight or month – depending on your lifestyle needs.

Further advantages of these types of loans include big savings in paperwork, as well as time and worry each month, and more control of your finances.

  • The institution’s ability to set a loan term and amount that actually suits your budget. Amounts from $3,000 upwards with terms from two to seven years give the flexibility most people need;

  • The ability to help you with the paperwork to move all your current commitments into the one loan – as this can be a bit of work if you’ve got lots of accounts with different credit providers. Staff should be able to work with you to determine your current commitments, then assist you to payout existing debts.

  • Flexibility with payment options so it suits your lifestyle. Since a key reason for establishing a debt consolidation loan is to ease the stress of juggling your finances, make sure that payment options are right for you. There should be options for weekly, fortnightly or monthly payments. The ability to use direct debit should also be available.

  • Because everyone’s financial management needs are unique with these types of loans, the institution should be able to work with your personally to create a debt consolidation loan that meets your lifestyle needs; and most importantly

  • Don’t agree to anything or sign anything you don’t fully understand. If you’re unsure, keep asking questions until you have the full picture.

Juggling personal finances doesn’t need to be a headache – even if most of us haven’t paid much attention to it since school! Finding the right debt consolidation loan for you should allow you to get your personal finance commitments back under control.

For more information, visit www.gemoney.com.au

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Tanya Angus: I can’t stop growing

Tanya Angus was a normal young woman until her body was transformed by a cruel and deadly disorder.

Just 10 years ago,Tanya Anguswas a healthy, vibrant and beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her. As a teenager, she would go to the beach with her family, happily wearing a bikini that showed off her well-proportioned 170cm-tall, 68kg body.

Now, her 198cm frame carries a weight of 217kg ?and Tanya fears stepping anywhere near the sand, or any public place.

“I’ve been asked to leave a salon because of my size,” she says. “They thought their chair was going to break.”

Tanya was leading the life of a normal young adult until she noticed in 2000 that her hands, feet, face and entire body, were growing and growing. Her condition became so debilitating that the devastated young woman ? who had left home only a year before ? lost her job and was forced to move back in with her parents.

Eventually she was diagnosed with the life-threatening disorder known as acromegaly, a condition often referred to as “gigantism”. A tumour was causing an overproduction of growth hormone. Doctors were able to remove only part of the tumour, but not all of it, leaving Tanya with horrific physical and emotion scars.

“A lot of people have said I look like a man or a drag queen,” she says. “I grew up normal. I wasn’t ready to hear that.”

Tanya’s condition means she has had to undergo several back operations because the discs in her spine have been pulverised by her weight.

She now cannot stand for more than a few minutes at a time. Even resting causes constant pain and she must take 28 different medications just to stay alive, costing her struggling family thousands of dollars a month.

Do you or someone you know also suffer from a life-threatening disorder like Tanya? Share your story below..

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I was Jacko’s secret lover

Despite two marriages and a string of alleged girlfriends, Matthew Denby reports that in private Michael Jackson was a very different man.

Michael Jackson’s secret gay lover has blown the lid on the late superstar’s hidden lifestyle, revealing startling details of the singer’s final weeks.

Jason Pfeiffer, a heavily built, 35-year-old employee of Michael’s dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein, has told Woman’s Day of his love affair with the star, calling their connection “a short romantic love story that ended in tragedy”.

“I’ve lost my soul mate, it’s very hard to describe the loss I feel but there is something that is empty in my heart,” says the Beverly Hills executive.

According to Jason, the romance began over the phone and progressed with a number of discreet meetings, after Michael had asked Jason to give him a ride home. He says they met secretly many times, both at the star’s rented home in Beverly Hills and at Jason’s office.

“I guess our first ‘date’, if you can call it that, was in my car,” says Jason. “We went for a drive and were talking and having fun, but Michael had his minders who were ‘nosey’, as Michael put it.

“We had to make sure we were not caught, and although the date was short as I had to take him home before anyone noticed, we had a great time.

“I thought nobody else knew [about us] but have since discovered that others did surmise the truth.”

Jason —who reveals that they even shared last Christmas together with Michael’s children and a few close friends —says the plastic surgery-ravaged star was devastated by his appearance. He liked reliving the glory days of his career, but he wouldn’t look at old pictures.

“He did not like looking at old photos of himself and didn’t want his children to see them either,” says Jason.

“He desperately wanted to recreate the old glory days for fans, the kids and for himself.

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Jennifer speaks from the heart: I love Brad — I don’t regret anything

In her own words, Jennifer Aniston opens up to Polly Holder about Brad, marriage … and the healing power of screaming!

It’s been four years since Brad Pitt left Jen for Angelina Jolie, but with a string of failed relationships — including recent reported flings with Bradley Cooper and Gerard Butler — she isn’t ready to say goodbye to her ex-husband just yet. Sitting down with Woman’s Day, the beautiful star tells of her pain and her hopes for the future.

My love for Brad

I haven’t been unlucky in love. I’ve been unbelievably lucky. If any of us can say “I’ve been loved”, or “I loved and received love”, then surely that’s enough.

It was very intense being married in the public eye. But I don’t regret any of that time with Brad, and I’m not here to beat myself up about it.

I will love Brad for the rest of my life — you can’t take away good memories. I really do hope that we will be good friends again at some point.

Marriage and children

I still believe in marriage. Why should anyone close their heart down? My joy in life would be to have a very deep and committed partnership —that is what I’m interested in. But I know now that relationships are constantly evolving, and I truly don’t think anyone can ever claim to be at a point where you go, “That’s it, I’ve got it!”

You are always discovering something new, or you ought to be, because it’s complacency that’s the killer. I do want to have children. I just know that I am going to have children.

What I want from a man

I want to be happy, and I want to be loved, and not settling for something second best and less than I deserve.

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Jon and Kate: what happened next

As parents of eight children, reality TV stars Jon and Kate Gosselin are used to chaos. But the lowdown is that in the two years since they first started filming their lives for hit show Jon & Kate Plus 8, they have been through more drama off camera than on.

Having swapped their formerly modest lifestyle for the trappings of celebrity, the couple’s marriage has been ripped apart by allegations of child exploitation and extra-marital affairs, with their union finally imploding when Kate, 34, filed for divorce on June 22.

The catalyst: an alleged affair between Jon, 32, and 23-year-old teacher Deanna Hummel. While Jon denied the fling, it was the beginning of the end for the couple.

While a tearful Kate last week appeared on US TV saying she was refusing to take off her wedding ring so as not to upset the kids, family members have claimed the pair had an open marriage and kept up appearances for the sake of the show — and their hefty $US60,000-an-episode pay cheque.

“I need this to go on because I need to provide for my kids,” Kate told People magazine of her headline-grabbing lifestyle.

Kate has also been subjected to claims of infidelity. Her close relationship with bodyguard Steve Neild has raised eyebrows — but Kate denies any impropriety.

Kate’s mothering has also been criticised. In June, she was photographed smacking sextuplet Leah, and family members have claimed that she is more interested in fame than caring for her kids.

“She doesn’t know whose toothbrush is whose or who is in pull-ups,” a family source told Us Weekly.

But, turn the camera on, “and she would jump in front of it and make sure they saw her holding the kid’s hand or something”.

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Renae Lawrence: Schapelle would be dead without me

The Bali Nine prisoner tells Alan Shadrake about her new job, as the ‘jailhouse angel’ keeping troubled Schapelle Corby alive.

When a desperate Schapelle Corby climbed an eight metre water tower near her cell block in Kerobokan Jail, prison guards turned to an unlikely saviour for their most famous prisoner.

Almost two years after Renae Lawrence and Schapelle publicly attacked each other, the pair have become increasingly close —to the point where Renae has been charged with taking care of a shattered Schapelle when she tries to hurt herself.

“It’s not the first time I’ve had to go after her when she’s doing something like that,” Renae tells Woman’s Day.

“She’s tried to climb onto the roof of the cells and lodged herself inside a space in the ceiling of her cell. She thinks she can get out of the prison that way and it takes a lot of talking to bring her down.”

Renae has been secretly caring for Schapelle for almost a year at the special request of prison authorities, who have appointed her head trustee.

“I’m the only one she listens to,” says Renae. She has no doubt that Schapelle is seriously ill.

“Schapelle’s definitely become unbalanced,” she says. “I’ve seen her deteriorate week by week. She’s not the Schapelle I used to know since we were banged together in here four years ago.”

Renae says the Corby family have welcomed her support in caring for Schapelle, despite the two women’s turbulent past. At first, the pair, both 32 and both serving 20 years for drug trafficking, were bitter enemies.

Their prison disputes first became public when Schapelle attacked Renae in her book My Story, calling her a “freak” and a “psychopathic lesbian” and claiming she lived in fear of being beaten up by her fellow Aussie.

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Olivia’s lost love: Inside the hunt for Patrick

Since Woman’s Day revealed Olivia Newton-John’s missing lover is hiding out in Mexico the search has hotted up. Dylan Howard is on the trail.

The broken road to Sayulita in Mexico is dwarfed by mist-wreathed mountains. As you weave in and out of the jungle, blink and you could miss the concealed turn-off to the tiny fishing village. And that’s exactly how Olivia Newton-John’s missing boyfriend Patrick McDermott likes it.

As Woman’s Day revealed in a worldwide exclusive last week, Patrick is believed to be living in the tiny coastal village after disappearing from an overnight fishing trip off the coast of California in 2005.

An official report by the US coastguard into the former cameraman’s disappearance concluded that Patrick had most likely drowned after falling overboard. But the case has been turned on it’s head since Woman’s Day revealed that private investigator Philip Klein had received a fax and proof-of-life photo from Patrick’s legal representative, confirming that he’s alive.

The coastguard is yet to officially reopen the case, but a coastguard spokesman has invited members of the public with information to come forward, paving the way for a new investigation.

“If we get information we consider credible and possible, we will re-open it,” Scott Epperson told Woman’s Day.

“The Woman’s Day story played big,” says Klein. “We’ve got about 250 tips, more, from parts further than Sayulita, which doesn’t surprise me. This is completely consistent with what we’ve established.”

Despite its picturesque beaches, Sayulita remains off the beaten track for most tourists. Nevertheless, it has a vibrant community of expatriates, many of whom told Woman’s Day they’ve seen Patrick roaming the cobblestone boulevards of the town that’s also a magnet for surfers, drifters and those wishing to escape their former lives.

Local resident Aldo says he saw Patrick two weeks ago, walking along Sayulita’s main street, a block from the beach.

“He was tall, he looks old. It was definitely him.”

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Matilda Ledger: Papa Kim’s little girl

Kim Ledger talks to Natalee Fuhrmann about his precious time with his granddaughter Matilda and her mum Michelle in New York.

When Heath Ledger died, fans feared his daughter Matilda may lose touch with her Aussie heritage, but nothing could be further from the truth, with her mother Michelle Williams welcoming Heath’s dad Kim and sister Kate into her New York home.

With her 29th birthday just weeks away, Michelle opened her home and her heart to “Papa Kim” and “Aunty Kate”, who have just spent 10 days getting to know the lovely little girl Heath left behind.

“We call Michelle and Matilda our ‘M and Ms’,” confides proud grandad Kim. “It takes us 24 hours to get to them, but it’s worth every minute.”

The 38,000 kilometre round-trip from Perth is punishing, but Heath’s dad is trying to push aside the painful memories of his son’s death and develop a close relationship with Michelle and Matilda.

Kate, too, adores Michelle, and when the two spend time together the almost-sisters-in-law laugh and share their memories of Heath.

“We had a great time over there and we didn’t want to leave New York,” admits a still jet-lagged Kim, fresh from his “Matilda fix” in the States.

“Matilda calls me Papa and my daughter is Aunty Kate —and she runs into our arms when we see her. She is adorably affectionate and very playful. We take turns to read her off to sleep each night.”

Even though Michelle and Heath had separated before his death, the Ledger family never let go of their ties to the actress. To them, Michelle remains a much-loved member of the family.

Matilda may not get to know her dad, but she will certainly get to know her Aussie grandad.

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Mitchell Johnson: Jessica is my secret weapon

The cricket hero’s proposal to Jessica Bratich didn’t quite go to plan. The couple tell Lucie Morris how her family, his nerves and their young puppy turned it into an affair to remember.

With the hopes of a nation resting on his broad shoulders, Mitchell Johnson could be excused for feeling the pressure. But, after leading Australia to a remarkable comeback in the fourth Test of the Ashes, the fast bowler isn’t showing any signs of nervousness.

“It’s so exciting to see him do so well,” smiles fiancée Jessica Bratich, who has been back in Australia recuperating after a hip operation. “I’m really happy for him. I think he’s just got his head together. He’s had some quite harsh comments [about his previous play] but you can’t be perfect all the time. He’s adjusted and getting back into his game.”

Now recovering from her operation, Jessica will soon be back in the UK for the fifth Test. Then, the karate champion says, she can’t wait to get back to training.

“My goal is to compete in the World Championships in 2010,” she says. “I can walk fine now, and there’s not too much pain. I feel like I can move forward.”

Things are certainly on the up for the couple of three years, who got engaged at the end of May. Three weeks ago they spoke to Woman’s Day at the Aussie team base in Kensington, London. “I just love her passion, her drive and her strength —and, of course, her looks,” Mitchell said, stroking Jessica’s hand adorned with a 1.5 carat princess-cut diamond engagement ring. “As soon as we started dating it just felt so right. Everything seemed to fall into place very naturally.

While some sports commentators blamed the controversy over Mitchell’s mum’s fight with Jessica for his form slump in the third Test, the hunky bowler insists it is Jessica who has helped bring out the best in him.

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How Embarrassing!

Actress Mischa Barton suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction at a charity night when her dress slipped lower than she was expecting!

Fans around the world were shocked when this photo of Jessica Simpson was released earlier this year, showing the singer’s sudden weight gain.

Who could forget this gaffe on the catwalk for former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins? Fortunately the gorgeous blonde had the good nature to laugh it off.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 2007 election campaign was overshadowed by the emergence of embarrassing footage of him eating his own earwax in parliament. The cringe-worthy video was replayed on international news networks for weeks.

Transformers actress Megan Fox showed a little more flesh than she planned at the Teen Choice Awards in Los Angeles this month.

Bright young Harry Potter star Emma Watson couldn’t magic away the wind at a movie premiere in London this year. The actress had to quickly call on helpers to keep her floor-length flowing gown intact.

US singer Fergie still turns red at the thought of the time she accidentally wet her pants on stage, during a concert with her band Black Eyed Peas.

Poor Peter Andre is not having a good year. Following his split from wife Katie Price his comeback album is proving to be a big flop… literally. The singer took an embarrassing – and painful – fall from a stage recently trying to promote his new offering.

Britney Spears has had more than her fair share of red-faced moments in her short career, but few could go past her bizarre head shaving incident. The singer burst into a Los Angeles hair salon and demanded to have her uncomfortable hair extensions removed. When the salon refused to shave her head, Britney grabbed the shears and did it herself.

US Secretary of state Hillary Clinton lost her usually unshakeable composure on a recent trip to Africa when a student asked for her husband’s views. A furious Mrs Clinton snapped at the shocked man: “My husband is not the Secretary of State — I am. You ask my opinion; I will tell you my opinion. I’m not going to channel my husband.”

Former child star Lindsay Lohan has been caught with her pants down on a number of occassions. This time, an unpredictable gust of wind caught the actress off-guard.

Demi Moore knew Ashton Kutcher was a prankster when she married him… though we doubt she expected to be the butt of his jokes! Ashton, a big fan of social networking site Twitter, has been caught posting photos of his wife in her knickers.

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