I find it hard to prepare for retirement and/or save up like what my peers or people on this community are doing, when I am trying to support my parents' retirement on top of everything. Any advice?

Privilege is a huge part of why some people can invest x dollar value, but it means nothing unless taken into consideration how much that dollar value is in relation to spending, saving, debt and commitment.

I have always found it hard to save enough to create a good enough safety net as I started out my career in a low paying role. At just $1.2k a month, it was too small an amount for me to consider investment.

Looking back now, the biggest contributor to my ability to even consider investing was increasing my earning ability within and outside work. Just that confidence in creating value with my own hands and that being recognised by others who are willing to pay me for it, helped me accumulate a good safety net in a few years and I am only just starting to allocate my money to investments.

When I focused on increasing my value when it came to things I loved (e.g. photography, marketing, writing, learning and distilling information for others) I noticed they all centred around a similar theme, so instead of investing in the stock market, the small amount of money I had saved each month, I spent it on investing in myself.

The result is the period when I was super focused on that investment in myself reaped the most rewards for me in my career and personal life so far and allowed me to comfortably allocate $1.5k or more to saving for investments as this is money I am now willing to lose in the worst case scenario since I know I can find ways to create value that help me earn that money back.

Giving a small sum of allowance to parents and bringing them out for a good meal once in a while can be the starters.

The only way is to increase your income quickly so that you can support your parents AND plan for yourself. Trying to make do with low income is a losing game

You're probably still young. Tell yourself it's oky to start small. some people started from $200 a month, some start from $2000 a month.

but the important thing is, you started. It's never about how fast you get there. :)