If I recall correctly, Heruro said that she started off at $42,000 a year as a junior designer in Texas. That comes out to be $21/hr (assuming a 2000 hour work year). Texas has a low cost of living but iirc, Heruro has more experience than you do so that most likely resulted in getting a couple thousand a year more.
In other words, Atramental, you should be getting anywhere between $16-20 an hour for your work, not $9. Unless you're leaving something out that you're not telling us, like the job market is in the shitter there, you got a degree from a degree mill (aka a DeVry equivalent), you have an administrative position, or something to that effect.
Also a new BMW doesn't mean much. I know people who have BMWs and most of them don't crack much above $30k a year. If you want to be in debt up to your eyeballs, there's usually a lender who is more than happy to help you out with that. So don't take that to mean anything.