He had primary education at the Royal English School in the River Valley vicinity, and went on to the St. Joseph's Institution together with his eldest brother, Charlie Goh.

When the Japanese began bombing Singapore at the early stage of their invasion, the Goh family hid under a staircase at the back of their house at Emerald Hill.

As he was fearful of the Japanese soldiers, he had to learn to be streetwise, and to size people up quickly in order to survive, and make money to support his family.

Goh also won a scholarship to study at the prestigious Raffles College (a predecessor of the National University of Singapore) and graduated with a BA in English.

Moving on from the Ministry, he went into banking as a project management director, and was instrumental to the building of the OCBC Centre and the Dynasty Hotel/Tangs Complex.