diff --git a/terminator b/terminator
index 8fd7451e..9263930c 100755
--- a/terminator
+++ b/terminator
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ class TerminatorTerm:
 
     self.cwd = cwd or os.getcwd();
     if not os.path.exists(self.cwd) or not os.path.isdir(self.cwd):
-      self.cwd = os.path.expanduser("~")
+      self.cwd = pwd.getpwuid(os.getuid ())[5]
 
     if profile == None:
       profile = self.gconf_client.get_string (self.defaults['gt_dir'] + '/global/default_profile')