Karrie League starts at the beginning
“It's fairly simple. First, we dated for 7 years before we got married, and in the last 2 years of that, we ran a business together.”
“Running a business together is the absolute best way to know if a couple is compatible! Especially if the business failed, like our first venture did.”
Through the business, the leagues learned that their financial discipline was similar. Their attitudes toward money, debt, spending and saving were all aligned.
“In 1996 when we were building out the first theater, we spent a grand total of $5000 for the entire year on personal spending - food and lodging and nothing else. We couch surfed, and ate a lot of bologna sandwiches and ramen”
Building on a foundation of shared money sensibilities, Karrie highlighted two pillars of lasting love she practices in her marriage.
“A crucial element, absolutely essential to a successful marriage, is trust.”
Trusting someone unconditionally demands a willingness to be vulnerable. Being a trustworthy partner is the other half of the equation.
“how can you be sure if one's potential partner is deserving, and will continue to be so (people can and do change!)”
Building a marriage into a generational success story raises the stakes and increases the importance of trust.
“There has to be absolute trust. Unless a couple keeps their finances separate, they have to trust each other to stick to the plan.”
Without combining their finances and trusting each other deeply, the Leagues would not have been able to rebuild after an early failed venture and ultimately grow Alamo Drafthouse into my favorite collection of movie theaters.
Trust enables the Leagues to divide their labor and specialize, empowering each other in a virtuous cycle.
Karrie says, “In our case, I manage all the household finances. I am in charge of all the bank accounts and responsible for all bill payments, insurance, taxes, investments, real estate, bookkeeping etc.”
Despite the complexity of operating a multi-million dollar household, Karrie keeps their finances accessible and transparent for Tim.
“Tim could look at it all if he wanted, but he doesn't have time for that, so he just has to trust me… he has access to loans and credit cards and cash, and I have to trust him to spend wisely.”
The second pillar of lasting love is just as important to their relationship.
“There has to be grace, and forgiveness for mistakes.”
If you’re not familiar with the term, I think of grace as release from the burden of sin. It takes a strong and spiritually mature partner to extend grace in those moments when grace is most needed.
“Things always go wrong. It happens over and over again, and sometimes it's out of your control, and sometimes you just miscalculate and misjudge, and suddenly a home renovation is twice as expensive”
“or one spouse crashes the car a week after the other forgot to keep the car insurance paid.”
Examples only - these things couldn't have possibly happened to the Leagues ;)
Instead of blame and resentment, smoldering and causing division, the Leagues focus their efforts forgiving one another, bringing grace into their relationship.
Karrie sums up the importance of separating financial ups and downs from love in a relationship, beautifully.
“The bottom line is, we've been very poor, and we've been very rich. And we've been happy both ways, and happy in-between.”
For richer and for poorer, right?
If you follow Alamo Drafthouse in the news, like I do, you’ll know that uncoupling finances and love was particularly important for the leagues when their movie theaters closed during the pandemic.
“After Covid, we went back to in-between, with a moment there when we thought it might go back to very poor. We had to check in with ourselves to make sure that we would be ok with the adjustment, whatever it might be.”
My favorite part of this interview was how clear it became, that despite financial success and social accolades, the Leagues remain grounded and humble.
“I think that the reason that we would have been ok (that we WERE ok with loss of 3/4 of our net worth) is that we have never changed our basic [financial] attitudes.”
Refusing to fall into the “lifestyle trap” and being true to themselves immunizes the leagues against financial shocks.
“We have never overspent our income, we have always put significant income towards savings, and we have always avoided personal debt as much as possible. Those attitudes… make it possible to build back up.”
When times get tough, they also think back to early in their marriage
“We had a nightly ritual of dinner at Taco Cabana, where we would buy one taco and tree extra tortillas for $1.75, and divide the contents of the one taco into four tortillas, then fill out each one at the salsa bar.”
When I bump into Karrie or Tim around Austin I always walk away with a smile.
They lead by example, proving that married couples collaborating towards a shared vision are unstoppable.
