As Cameron said, Microsoft has pretty much fixed the problem on the newer 360's that are produced while the old ones are still prone to the RRoD. Even though your Xbox may experience this, Microsoft is pretty good at replacing/fixing your console for free. So I mean, you're not really wasting money if you buy an Xbox and it gets the RRoD. You're just missing out on a couple weeks of gaming, which I'm sure you can recover from =)
I've had my 360 Elite for over a year and haven't had any problems. I believe the Elites are yet to have any issues with the RRoD, but I could be mistaken.
Don't forget that the PS3 also has its share of issues. My roommate's PS3 recently got the yellow light and it cost him $180 CDN to fix it.