diff --git a/openstack/clientconfig/requests.go b/openstack/clientconfig/requests.go
index 7dde8762..508f1ab1 100644
--- a/openstack/clientconfig/requests.go
+++ b/openstack/clientconfig/requests.go
@@ -73,13 +73,9 @@ func LoadCloudsYAML() (map[string]Cloud, error) {
 
 // LoadSecureCloudsYAML will load a secure.yaml file and return the full config.
 func LoadSecureCloudsYAML() (map[string]Cloud, error) {
-	content, err := findAndReadSecureCloudsYAML()
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
-	}
-
 	var secureClouds Clouds
-	err = yaml.Unmarshal(content, &secureClouds)
+
+	content, err := findAndReadSecureCloudsYAML()
 	if err != nil {
 		if err.Error() == "no secure.yaml file found" {
 			// secure.yaml is optional so just ignore read error
@@ -88,6 +84,11 @@ func LoadSecureCloudsYAML() (map[string]Cloud, error) {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
+	err = yaml.Unmarshal(content, &secureClouds)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to unmarshal yaml: %v", err)
+	}
+
 	return secureClouds.Clouds, nil
 }