Is it necessary to go four years to college to become an author?

No. Next question :-)

You can study creative writing at college, but it's unlikely you'll ever make enough money from writing to pay off the loans you had to take out to pay for the course.

Unless - perhaps - you want to write the sort of fiction that wins the Man Booker or the Pulitzer, publishers and readers don't care what, if any, letters you have after your name. They care whether you've written something that might make a stack of money (in the case of the publisher) or is worth paying for (in the case of the reader).

Most of the writers you've heard of have been to college, but you'll probably find most of them didn't study creative writing or English literature. (Not for their bachelor's degree, anyway - some of them might've gone back to college to study one of those later.) I think it's because, to write a book that's worth reading, you need above-average intelligence and the ability to stay focused on a distant goal for a couple of years. These are also qualities you need to get a college degree. In other words, correlation does not imply causation.

No, you can do it however you want. You can start a book in high school or in your 50s. I suggest not getting a major in creative writing and instead taking a class because that degree isn't going to get you anywhere. If you think you need some help you always have us and online courses. Your library ,ignited have some workshops there as well. But don't spend all that time and money on a creative writing degree that's not even necessary to be a writer.

AM being a writer is a freelance thing like a painter or an actor. It's not 9 to 5, there is not minimum wage and there are no prerequisites for it. I'm just clarifying his because of you last question. I'm making sure your next question won't be does being an author come with dental?

No - but you'd need to get qualified for another job, as you're highly unlikely to ever earn enough money as an author to survive on. So college would be a good idea for that reason alone.
College is also great for building up general knowledge, a wider experience of life and people, expanding your imagination and outlook - and giving you ideas.
Studying English Language and Literature, History, Psychology, etc. - any or all of those subjects would be a great background for any aspiring writer.

That depends on what you want to write about. If you want to write nonfiction about a specific subject, you may be much more likely to get published if you have educational and professional credentials in that subject, which may require a college degree (and more). To write fiction, no, not so much, although a college education may make you a more interesting and knowledgeable person, may teach you a lot about writing, and may make your writing better in many ways.

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No.

No.

No, Mark Steyn makes a very good living as a writer without a degree. I'm not endorsing his POV, but he does come to mind as a writer/pundit who is a high school dropout. That being said, he did drop out of the same high school that Tolkien graduated from. Hubert Selby Jr. is another writer who dropped out of school. Selby eventually went on to teach creative writing at a university.

Nope.

No but many of my favorite authors have degrees in Engineering, accounting, or Chemistry