Well first off, It would be a great addition to your CV if you go abroad and do bachelors from abroad. It will set you apart from the thousands of accas in the market these days so i would say if you have the money and the time, Go for it. If you can get 6 papers exempted thats great too then you'll only have to give the remaining 8 papers which if you are very good in studies, You should pass them in 1-1.5 years
Now on to your questions:
1) Should I opt for a Bachelors and then an ACCA after claiming exemptions, or go straight on with ACCA after A levels. Assuming the Bachelors is from a good foreign uni.
Go for bachelors in my opinion.. No one will be able to guide you properly in this regard, but just have a look in industry.. People who have bachelors from foreign countries are in good demand.
2) Does it affect my job prospects if I do ACCA direct and have no formal education?
Well it does a little bit. Having a proper bachelors degree does make a difference.
3) Suppose I do my ACCA directly, and move on with CFA or ICAEW or IF I want to do a good masters, will there be any problems.
^All of the above questions are regarding the benefit or LACK off due to having/not having a Bachelors. Thats where I am confused.
Well that is also a good route you can take.. You can do ACCA plus CFA or ICAEW and go for MBA later on. I plan on that as well. There shouldnt be any problems since you can get a bachelors degree from Oxford Brookes from ACCA after you pass papers till F9 so you can join Masters based on that degree plus most universities do recognize ACCA/CFA/ICAEW and there shouldnt be any problems if you pursue masters later on.
4) ACCA salaries abroad, are they good? I would be considering Riyadh/Jeddah since I live in Saudi already and even the UAE.
They're pretty decent. I've heard figures ranging from 5-10 thousand riyals for fresh qualified ACCA, Whereas for an ACCA Member (with 3 years experience) somewhere in the range of 10-17 thousand Riyals
5) If I'm sticking to the accountancy field, if I straight on go with ACCA > CFA (I really wanna do CFA
) is that a bad choice? (DO I need a bachelors?)
CFA requires bachelors.. but it considers ACCA equivalent to bachelors plus since you already get a bachelors degree along with ACCA you dont need to worry about it.