diff --git a/keyring/core.py b/keyring/core.py
index ef18128e..bbdb3e47 100644
--- a/keyring/core.py
+++ b/keyring/core.py
@@ -195,6 +195,6 @@ def _load_keyring_path(config: configparser.RawConfigParser) -> None:
     "load the keyring-path option (if present)"
     try:
         path = config.get("backend", "keyring-path").strip()
-        sys.path.insert(0, path)
+        sys.path.insert(0, os.path.expanduser(path))
     except (configparser.NoOptionError, configparser.NoSectionError):
         pass
diff --git a/newsfragments/696.feature.rst b/newsfragments/696.feature.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7dd16761
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/696.feature.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+When parsing ``keyring_path`` from the config, the home directory is now expanded from ``~``.
\ No newline at end of file