Given the technical-sounding title of this column, I thought it would be best to begin by explaining my definition of operational and non-operational tasks. Then, once defined, explain why you don’t want to mix them.

Question: When putting a bid on a home, how much below the asking price is a reasonable first bid? Christina H.

Weekly financial Q-and-A, with advice on using coupons and how to spend birthday money given to a baby.

The most commonly asked question of folks nearing retirement is: "What is a safe
rate of withdrawal from my nest egg?" Gone are the days of living on the interest
while leaving the principal untouched. With low interest rates, conservative
investors are forced to either limit spending or cut into principal every month.

Q: What happened to the original documents when her current mortgage company bought their mortgage a couple of years ago? Is there not some legal recourse? This seems like fraud. -- Laura F.

Q: Greg, I remember the 1960 Dodge Polara as one fine car for its day. My uncle had a two-door hardtop that he bought brand new, and it came with a big V-8. (But I don't remember how big.) Can you give me some background on this car and the engines available that year? George C., Illinois.

Pages 5-32 in the owner’s manual of the 2013 Nissan GT-R is innocently headlined “R Mode Start Function.” But under the subhead “WARNING!” half the text is highlighted in orange and yellow. And it’s studded with words like failure, disrupt, collision, accident, damage and my perennial favorites, safe and legal, preceded by only if. Oh, my.

I would like to begin this week’s column simply by saying that if you are a manager, to your team, you are the head of the fish. If your department is having issues related to poor morale, low productivity, low quality, high attrition, or other similar and undesirable predicaments, a good place to begin your analysis is with some personal soul-searching. Note that by this statement, I am by no means saying you are the problem, I’m just saying that you may be the problem or you are potentially contributing to the problem.

Reader question: We are about to refinance and are $7,800 away from 80 percent of our home’s assessed value. The PMI balloon payment thing is about $6,500. Should not we (because we can afford it) pay the $7,800, then not pay the PMI? But the real question is should I do it before closing or at closing? Thanks. Nick G. – Philadelphia.

In this week’s column, I would like to discuss hiring from a different perspective, namely, the importance of hiring the right people. By the right people, I don’t necessarily mean hiring the person who is the smartest, the most experienced, the most educated, etc. I mean hiring the person who: