Question: I hate to have to start paying another $100 a month starting in January '16. Seems silly for just $3500 and the interest is so high. Or should I just sit tight?
Assumptions based on reading (sometimes between the lines) the OP:
1) You already are putting $18K/yr into your 401k and $5500/yr into your traditional IRA.
2) You pay your CC bill in full every month, and $1K is simply the amount currently due.
3) State+local income tax is ~$2K/yr
4) You could set up the SL payments to be automatic each month
5) You will invest any excess cash flow each month (or, better yet, you will set a fixed monthly investment amount and spend only whatever is left over).
6) Market returns will be ~average (i.e., >7%).
Given the items above, and knowing that your effective rate on the 4.5% loans is ~3.4% due to the federal SL interest deduction, I'd pay the loan minimums to get historical market returns instead - which, due to the 15% tax on LTCG and QD need be only ~4% to beat the SL pay-off.