Start 401k or put more money towards student loans?

[Steven McMahan]

I'm 31, and managed to save a little over $1,000 in the past year with the intention of starting a Roth IRA. Two different people have said it's not worth starting one unless you have 2K, but I know that even just that 2K could slowly build up a good amount of interest.

On the other hand, I still have over 31K in student loans, and can only really afford to put about $100 towards them per month (well over my expected payments on IDR). Even with no interest, it would take 30+ years to pay off all that at my current rate (and I'm not sure that I would qualify for the 20-year "tax bomb" thing on IDR). My inheritance from my parents somewhere in those three decades would give a decent bump but not too much.

I could take most of that 1K and make a good dent in my loans, especially with no interest being accrued in response to COVID. Or maybe, continue to hope that my continued search for a real career yields something that allows significantly better repayment of those loans.

(My half-time job offers a 401K which I'm using, but with no match, and it only pays minimum wage, although that's better than a lot of other states since I'm in Oregon).

The current loan interest rates are:

Two loans at 4.66%

Two loans at 3.86%

One at 3.4%

One at 4.5%