![\"Thoughtful](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Ponderous-1200x800.jpg\")
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Image source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
No investor should gamble their future on just one UK share. That would be an almighty risk. <\/p>\n
My self-invested personal pension (SIPP) holds around 20 different stocks. While I would happily junk two or three of them (I\u2019m looking at you Aston Martin<\/strong>, Glencore<\/strong> and Ocado Group<\/strong>), binning the rest would be painful.<\/p>\n But let\u2019s say somebody put a gun to my head. Which would be the sole survivor?<\/p>\n Narrowing it down<\/p>\n There are some stocks that investors might buy if they knew in advance they could only hold one. Utility stock National Grid<\/strong> is seen as a solid dividend growth play<\/a>, but I don\u2019t actually hold it.<\/p>\n Consumer goods giant Unilever<\/strong> has both defensive merits. I did hold that, but recently banked a profit as I was underwhelmed by its growth potential.<\/p>\n So what about the stocks I do hold? Which would I save?<\/p>\n I\u2019d hate to sell private equity specialist 3i Group<\/strong>, which has doubled my money in 18 months. It\u2019s had a great run though, and looks a little bit too expensive, so it would have to go.<\/p>\n I\u2019d also hate to offload insurer Phoenix Group Holdings<\/strong>, whose shares are up 30% in a year, and still yield a bumper 8.3%. It\u2019s a happy day when the Phoenix dividend hits my SIPP, and the same applies for rival FTSE 100<\/strong> wealth manager M&G<\/strong>. Another super-high yielder.<\/p>\n Yet both would have to go. If those dividends are cut at any time, the investment case could collapse. I don\u2019t think they will, but the stakes are high here.<\/p>\n I\u2019d also offload my SIPP growth stock stars Rolls-Royce Holdings<\/strong> and BAE Systems<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Lloyds is the stock I\u2019d save<\/p>\n They\u2019ve done brilliantly, but remember, I can only hold one stock here. I\u2019d bank my profits on both to make way for last stock standing, Lloyds Banking Group<\/strong> (LSE: LLOY<\/a>).<\/p>\n I bought the high street bank on three occasions in 2023, and it\u2019s been the surprise over-achiever in my portfolio.<\/p>\n I hoped for modest share price growth. Instead, Lloyd shares are up 40% in a year (and 72% since I bought them). Once my reinvested dividends are added, my total return is almost 100% in 18 months.<\/p>\n Lloyds is now almost entirely focused on the UK domestic market, which makes it a play on our economic fortunes. There are good sides to that \u2013 but also bad ones. The UK economy isn\u2019t exactly thriving right now, while inflation remains a menace.<\/p>\n Mortgage rates have actually been rising again in recent weeks, which could further squeeze house prices, and slow demand.<\/p>\n Income, growth and buybacks<\/p>\n Lloyds has also had to set aside hefty sums for potential debt impairments, and could be on the hook for a billion or two, following the motor finance mis-selling scandal.<\/p>\n But despite its strong run, the Lloyds price doesn\u2019t look over valued, with a price-to-earnings ratio of just over 12. The forecast yield of 4.4% should keep the income flowing. Especially since it\u2019s covered 2.1 times by earnings. The bank is also running a hefty \u00a31.7bn share buyback<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lloyd will have its ups and downs and like I said, I would be crazy to go all in on just one stock. But if I had to do it, this would be the one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image source: Getty Images No investor should gamble their future on just one UK share. That would be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,2165,2166,474,2168,2169,2170,2171,2172,2173,2174,2499,70722,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-169363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-category-dividend-shares","10":"tag-category-investing","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-partner-feeds-dbc-media","13":"tag-partner-feeds-fineco","14":"tag-partner-feeds-flipboard","15":"tag-partner-feeds-msn","16":"tag-partner-feeds-pluto-invest","17":"tag-partner-feeds-sharesight","18":"tag-partner-feeds-yahoo-uk","19":"tag-personal-finance","20":"tag-tickers_global-lse-lloy","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114651562255465841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}