Gregory Geisler, associate professor of accounting at UMSL, co-wrote the study “Retirement Account Options When Beginning a Career,” which appeared in the Journal of Financial Service Professionals. (Photo by August Jennewein)

As commencement season begins, many soon-to-be graduates are finalizing their next steps and securing their first jobs. But even at this early career stage, young employees should consider saving for retirement.

New college graduates will face an overwhelming number of financial choices, including how to save for their golden years, according to a new study by Gregory Geisler, associate professor of accounting at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, and Jerry Stern, professor of accounting at Indiana University-Bloomington.

The study, “Retirement Account Options When Beginning a Career,” appeared in the May issue of the Journal of Financial Service Professionals and was recently highlighted in an article in USA Today.

Geisler said there is a three-step decision-making hierarchy to follow.

“And this hierarchy is what will make the individual wealthiest after considering taxes,” Geisler told USA Today.

Those steps include: contributing to an employer matching Roth account, investing the maximum possible into a Roth IRA and contributing as much as possible to an individual Roth account.

“For Roth investments, regardless of whether tax rates are rising, falling or remaining constant over time, employees can depend on their annualized after-tax rates of return and future after-tax values to be unaffected by changing marginal tax rates,” Geisler and Stern wrote in their study.