diff --git a/docs/getting_started/starter_example.md b/docs/getting_started/starter_example.md
index 656421d1c987419c2d107de68f3925e7ffcbe394..ccae8c89ba148c6957d7962474c6d4ad8b8e7708 100644
--- a/docs/getting_started/starter_example.md
+++ b/docs/getting_started/starter_example.md
@@ -95,15 +95,16 @@ from llama_index import (
 )
 
 # check if storage already exists
-if not os.path.exists("./storage"):
+PERSIST_DIR = "./storage"
+if not os.path.exists(PERSIST_DIR):
     # load the documents and create the index
     documents = SimpleDirectoryReader("data").load_data()
     index = VectorStoreIndex.from_documents(documents)
     # store it for later
-    index.storage_context.persist()
+    index.storage_context.persist(persist_dir=PERSIST_DIR)
 else:
     # load the existing index
-    storage_context = StorageContext.from_defaults(persist_dir="./storage")
+    storage_context = StorageContext.from_defaults(persist_dir=PERSIST_DIR)
     index = load_index_from_storage(storage_context)
 
 # either way we can now query the index