Q: Why are the finches poor in to kill a mockingbird?

A: Atticus blew all his money on cheap women and expensive booze.

I don't understand the confusion. This is plainly stated in the book, right there in the second chapter.

Now that I think about it, my copy of the book may be slightly irregular. It contains a great many hand written notations, addendums and edits that I assumed to be the work of Harper Lee, but on closer inspection seem to be written in my late uncle's angry scrawl.

I guess that explains why Scout knew all that ninjitsu. That never did make sense.