Yep, a I earned a masters in accounting, a CPA, and some Big4 audit experience, and now I'm pursuing the CFA.
Know that pursuing multiple designations looks good, but it also looks bad. It means you messed up and pursued the wrong career at some point, but it also means you are experienced and well rounded. Its neither good nor bad. You are not better than someone who doesn't have a certification, in the same way the person with more certifications is not better than you. They're just tests.
Why?
The risk/reward trade off of an accounting career versus all other jobs in 'finance', the soul crushing-ness of redoing someone else's detail accounting work, the misery of formatting excel spreadsheets with the right color highlights and boarders, working late nights for meaningless deadlines, the drudgery of dedicating your career to zero-value backwards looking work. I'm taking this ridiculous test to escape accounting.
It is hard. Its a big sacrifice of your precious free time and youth, and the pay-off is not guaranteed. However, studying and passing proves you are self motivated, that you can work hard, and are intelligent enough. It provides you a chance to learn very interesting concepts in a structured and verifiable way. Its fun to compete and push yourself. That's why.
CFA Salary Data referring to a CFA institute survey from 2006
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/13632/cfa-compensation-survey-results/
CPA Salary Data referring to a 2010 Robert Half Survey
https://community.thiswaytocpa.com/allgroups/profession/b/articles/archive/2012/12/28/cha-ching-cha-ching.aspx
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