As awkward as it may be, I would say that step 1 should be talking to them. You obviously know your relationship the best as far as how to approach it, but laying out that you are thinking about this and want to be able to do this for them is a big one, and will give you an idea about the scope of what you are working with. For instance, both of my parents are in their mid 60's with no intention of retiring any time soon, including my father who owns his own business, so unforeseen tragedies aside, they'll both be working for quite some time yet.
Everyone else has said the savings thing. Depending on how much you are getting paid, you should be able to sock away a good amount of money over the next few years, if that is your primary concern.
A thing I've started doing with my retirement, which may be useful for you, is to set semi-arbitrary savings goals. So I want to have X thousand dollars in my savings account by the time I'm 35, 45, etc. I find this helps me stay motivated and on track better than some nebulous ALL THE MONEY SEVERAL DECADES LATER. This might be a useful approach for you given that it sounds like you are working on longer term event horizons.
And lastly, as someone with friends who are facing similar choices, if you anticipate a need for your parents to move in with you, and you are interested in buying a place, think about focusing on places that are big enough, or things that are duplexes or places that have a granny or garage apartment so you have enough space for everyone. Since you get along well and know you can live with them, the separate-but-near thing might be less of an issue. :) But my friend has a slightly fraught relationship with her inlaws, so having a place that is separate for them to potentially stay/live is important to her
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Everyone else has said the savings thing. Depending on how much you are getting paid, you should be able to sock away a good amount of money over the next few years, if that is your primary concern.
A thing I've started doing with my retirement, which may be useful for you, is to set semi-arbitrary savings goals. So I want to have X thousand dollars in my savings account by the time I'm 35, 45, etc. I find this helps me stay motivated and on track better than some nebulous ALL THE MONEY SEVERAL DECADES LATER. This might be a useful approach for you given that it sounds like you are working on longer term event horizons.
And lastly, as someone with friends who are facing similar choices, if you anticipate a need for your parents to move in with you, and you are interested in buying a place, think about focusing on places that are big enough, or things that are duplexes or places that have a granny or garage apartment so you have enough space for everyone. Since you get along well and know you can live with them, the separate-but-near thing might be less of an issue. :) But my friend has a slightly fraught relationship with her inlaws, so having a place that is separate for them to potentially stay/live is important to her
good luck!!