Aero wheels

I've been reading up on aero wheels and found a couple of links

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1099
http://bikehugger.com/post/view/aero-wheels/

The question I am struggling with is "are they worth it?" Since I don't race, my immediate answer is NO. Looking at the articles above, a saving of 20-30 seconds over 40Km doesn't really make a difference. Put it another way, is 30 seconds worth 1K bucks? The answer to that is "hell no!"

I've been getting dropped going down hill on group rides, so I wondered "would aero wheels help?" Well, my friends tell me in a pace line, aero wheels don't help. You're already benefiting from the slip stream, so that alone beats any aero wheel advantage.

It would seem that aero wheels give you a slight advantage when you're going faster than 18mph and by yourself. Much of the literature say you save x watts per x miles. My main focus is loosing weight and staying healthy, so burning more watts is what I want.

Actual performance benefit aside, aero wheels do look nice, but not nice enough that I want to spend 1,000.00 bucks on them. If the bike came with a set of aero wheels, I wouldn't return them, but at the same time justifying an extra 1K feels silly to me. I'd much rather put that to retire or the kids college fund.