Beginning your first job can be overwhelming. In addition to learning the ropes, you must deal with a thick packet of benefit choices involving your health, wealth and even retirement decades down the road.

No pressure, right?

So before you start to panic -- or, even worse, give up and just make your decisions blindly -- here are some suggestions on how to make the right choices when it comes to employee benefits.

Medical Math

Young people "have a tendency to over-insure," or sign up for more extensive and comprehensive medical coverage than they may really need, says Sara Taylor, annual enrollment practice leader at Hewitt Associates, a Lincolnshire, Ill., human-resources consulting firm.

You absolutely need insurance to pick up the tab for a serious illness or accident. But if your employer offers various types of medical coverage, and if you are someone who rarely sees a doctor, you may save money by picking whichever plan requires you to pay the lowest premiums. One tradeoff is that you may have to pay more if and when you do see a doctor, before the plan's coverage kicks in.

Among traditional insurance plans, Ms. Taylor recommends younger people in good health consider a plan with a high annual deductible, such as $1,000 to $2,000, in order to cut the premiums. But in the event of accident or illness, she adds, people need to make sure they have enough money to cover the deductible.

Younger people should also consider health maintenance organizations, or HMOs, which can require you to stick to a set list of doctors but typically involve low out-of-pocket costs and no deductibles.

Let Uncle Sam Help

You may be able to get a federal tax break to help in paying your health-insurance premiums and medical bills.

Many employers let workers divert part of their pay, before taxes, to "flexible spending accounts" or "health savings accounts." You can then use that tax-free money to pay for premiums, deductibles and co-insurance payments, in addition to over-the-counter medications and medical items such as eyeglasses which may not be covered by the plan.

You might also use spending accounts to pay for dental needs, since many employers cover around half the cost of dental care.

The two types of accounts have very different rules. Among them: With a flexible spending account, you have to use the money within a year, or sometimes 14½ months, or lose it. You can contribute to a health savings account, or HSA, only if you sign up for a high-deductible medical plan. Money you contribute to an HSA and don't use immediately continues to accumulate for later health spending or even retirement.

Many employers provide online tools to help employees compare health-care options and plan their spending-account contributions.

Get in the Saving Habit

Companies have been cutting back on traditional pension plans, making it more important than ever for workers to build retirement savings in vehicles such as company-sponsored 401(k) plans.

You may not think you need to worry about that in your early 20s, but "starting early is really where the power of investment accumulation works its magic," says Laurel S. Cochennet, a retirement consultant with Mercer Human Resource Consulting who is based in Kansas City, Mo.

A dollar you set aside for retirement at age 25 has twice as long to grow as one you set aside at age 45.

It's great if you can save 10% of your pay, but whatever you can handle is sure to be better than nothing. Certainly try to put in enough to take full advantage of any matching contributions offered by your employer.

For instance, an employer might offer a 50% match on up to 6% of your pay -- meaning that if you contribute 6% of your pay the employer will kick in 3%, for a total 9%.

Employees usually contribute pretax dollars to a 401(k); they pay taxes in later years when the money comes out. But Ms. Cochennet says young people should also consider the new Roth 401(k) plans being offered by some employers. With a Roth, contributions are made after taxes but the growth in the account is tax-free.

Employees who choose a Roth 401(k) are essentially banking on paying the tax now in a lower tax bracket than they will face when they are older.

Invest for Growth

With decades to go until retirement, you can afford to take some investment risk in hopes of growing a fat nest egg. Over long periods of time, stocks have delivered higher returns than less-volatile bonds and money-market instruments. But too many young people miss out by playing it too safe.

"By failing to take advantage of long time horizons and invest more aggressively, [younger investors] are giving up a lot of potential earnings," says Lori Lucas, director of retirement research at Hewitt Associates.

She notes that one rule of thumb is to take 100 and subtract your age. The resulting figure is the percentage of your assets that should be invested in stocks.

You should have exposure to large and midsize stocks and probably also stocks of companies outside the U.S., says William Brennan, a principal at Capital Management Group, a financial advisory firm in Washington, D.C.

Making the case for diversification, many benefit consultants tell employees of all ages not to go overboard with their own company's stock. "Anything higher than 20% is not achieving adequate diversification," says Ms. Lucas.

'Don't Micromanage'

To research the mutual funds offered in your 401(k), Mr. Brennan suggests the free resources on the morningstar.com Web site of Chicago research firm Morningstar.

But "don't micromanage it," advises James Wilson of J.E. Wilson Advisors, a financial-planning firm in Columbia, S.C. Investors can hurt their performance by making ill-timed jumps among investment options.

Mr. Wilson recommends young people invest their 401(k) dollars in so-called lifecycle funds, which are mutual funds that are designed for people who expect to retire in a particular year, such as 2045 or 2050. The fund's investment mix starts out fairly aggressive and becomes more conservative as the target retirement year gets closer.