diff --git a/retriv/__init__.py b/retriv/__init__.py
index 9cd61cd..af27bdd 100755
--- a/retriv/__init__.py
+++ b/retriv/__init__.py
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@
 
 # Set environment variables ----------------------------------------------------
 os.environ["TOKENIZERS_PARALLELISM"] = "false"
-os.environ["RETRIV_BASE_PATH"] = str(Path.home() / ".retriv")
-
+if "RETRIV_BASE_PATH" not in os.environ: # allow user to set a different path in .bash_profile
+    os.environ["RETRIV_BASE_PATH"] = str(Path.home() / ".retriv")
 
 def set_base_path(path: str):
     os.environ["RETRIV_BASE_PATH"] = path