From the Bitcoin Magazine article:
"If a majority of hash power signals support for Segregated Witness through BIP148 on or before August 1st, the protocol upgrade will activate smoothly. In that case, you’re fine, even if you didn’t prepare at all.
But it’s also possible that a majority of hash power will not go along with the BIP 148 UASF on August 1st, in which case the chain could split. If you hold your private keys, you will then have both 148 BTC and Legacy BTC."
So, you could end up with two different flavors of BTC, with your original number of coins in both.
I should point out that this article isn't mentioning the Hard Fork at all, but the Soft Fork. The Hard Fork will additionally complicate things, to the point that there might be three brands of BTC on August 2.